Memior 1st chapter preview

Childhood is supposed to be about learning, growing, and having fun. It’s about building relationships with family and friends and forming ideas about who and what you want to be. Growing up where I did and the way I did, I understood very quickly the big difference between fantasy and reality.

I lived in the Gilmore Homes Projects in West Baltimore City, a community of apartments set in red brick buildings. Depending on which court you lived on, you could be in a building with multiple units, or a court where the units resembled townhouses or rowhouses with two floors. I grew up in a townhouse.

I was raised in a home with a single mom, two younger brothers, and my mother’s boyfriend. As a child, I wanted to become a teacher, a nurse, a lawyer, or a pediatrician. In an ideal world, my family would have a mom and dad who took care of our family and had lots of time to spend with us. That ideal was not the norm in Gilmore.