Hold on to Wind

By Jeremiah Mickens

I had the wind in my arms,

But it inhaled me like a sea.

I trapped the wind with my lungs,

But I knew I had to breathe.

Each time a breeze flew across my path

I would take a sip from wind, to breeze

To life, to breathe diving from my lips

The trees were laughing at me again

Because I kept trying, keep trying, to hold onto the wind.

*   *   *   *   *

I was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. I attended Rognel Heights, Harlem Park, and Liberty elementary schools. My family traveled to California when I was in the fourth or fifth grade.

As we traveled my mother taught us in the motor home that lived in. It was my stepfather, mother, and three sisters. On the way to California we stopped briefly and lived in a house in Phoenix, Arizona. When we finally arrived in Los Angeles it was almost six months later. We stayed in our motor home and lived partly in a house and partly in the motor home of a family friend. We stayed there a year. I attended Charles drew Elementary. My mother taught me at home for a long time because when I went back to school I was in the eighth grade.

I graduated from Charles drew, Jr. High. Somehow we ended up in Malibu, California. the lifestyle was completely different from Compton and East LA. Here we again stayed partly in a house and partly in a trailer. The part of Malibu we lived in was known as Point Dume. There I would ride the horse down to the beach daily. When Angel [the horse] would feel the sand under her feet she would take-off running.

I also began to lift weights and jog from Point Dume to Trancas. I attended Samo High in Santa Monica, California. I stayed there for two years partying and having a good time. It was my second year at Samo that I began to enjoy acting in my second play Nicholas Nickleby. I played three characters -- Pluck, Curdle, and Belling. It was acting that began to give me the focus I needed on education.

The focus was just in time because we moved again. this time we moved to Venice, California. I attended Venice High School. In Venice I became a member of the Venice High School Thespians. I acted in independent films, school plays, and tributes by Beverly Hills West Chapter LINKS.

My grades were not up to par so I was not allowed to act in any plays. My focus for school became even sharper. After school I would play football and basketball, avoiding hanging out with the many gangs that wanted to jump me in. I was focus mentally. I knew what I wanted to do. I was determined to do, be the best.

My mother changed that focus when she explained that we were moving back to Baltimore. I did not want to go. We came to California with a whole family of six. Now it was only a family of three. Soon it would be a family of none. We flew back to Baltimore.

In Baltimore I saw friends get shot. Many guns were pointed at me by robbers and police. I held the hands of the bleeding and dying. I cried on the shoulders of mothers and fathers. So many people I knew made it to the front page of the Baltimore Sun.

I ended up at Walbrook High School. I went through all of the graduation ceremonies but would not graduate from Walbrook. I graduated from Harbor City. I then went straight to Baltimore City Community College. After taking a break from college and cooking for five years in a Mexican restaurant in 1995 I married my high school sweetheart. We now have five children.

In 1996, I began to substitute in Baltimore City Public Schools. I started working in Companions extended Daycare in 1998. While there I attended college and graduated from Sojourner Douglass in 2000. I am now studying reading at Johns Hopkins University.

I have seen and been through a lot. But I never let go of my dream to be an actor, writer, teacher. One must have a dream. Hold onto it. Don't squeeze it too tight because it may slip away. Find the median and once you do you'll have the perfect grip. That's the time to hold on and don't let go, when it's good times or bad times. Just remember don't let go.