Chapter 2: Choices

My father was born in the 1950s and grew up in New York City, spending most of his childhood running the streets of Harlem and the Bronx. He was a tall, lanky, charismatic man who had his first child at 17 years old. He was high school educated. He worked several jobs over the course of his lifetime, none with any professional career trajectory. My mother was also born in the 1950s, although she spent her early years living in North Carolina, she grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant (Bed Stuy), Brooklyn. She was also high school educated. My mother was able to secure several secretarial jobs until she landed at a prestigious law firm where she would stay for 30-plus years before retiring. My mother was, and still is, the bedrock of our family; one of the wisest, most compassionate, and selfless people I will ever know.