Courage through my eyes

Award-winning essay by Boston Renaissance Charter Public School
6th grader Jawhari Dawan-Abdullah

Courage isn’t jumping off an airplane. Courage is overcoming a terror or a fear. I live in Dorchester. Some people consider that it is a hard place to live but to me it’s a little tough only occasionally. A lot of people promote drugs. Some of my best companions sell drugs and they try to persuade me to sell drugs with them. I said that I would sell drugs when pigs fly. They snicker at me and call me a little girl. They drop out of school just to sell drugs. Me I’m still in school. Just because you make money selling drugs doesn’t mean that it is a good idea. Since I live in a place where people sell drugs I can tell you what happens. You could get killed or get thrown in penitentiary. A wise man once told me that you should never settle for second so I always thrive to be the best. He said that God’s favorites always go through ups and downs.

This chapter in my life is almost done so I should just wait tio see what destiny holds for me. Although it seems that they have the best sneakers I will show courage by not falling under peer pressure. I see a lot of things that some people don’t know about. I thought about selling drugs at one point but what would my mother think of me? An intelligent young man throwing his life away and continuously on the news, I wouldn’t want my mother to go through that. It’s bad enough that we already live in a not-so-great place anyway. So I will not sell drugs just to keep a smile on her face. This is what courage means to me.