Greetings! It is hard to believe it is the month of December. Where does the time go? We are quickly approaching the winter holidays, as we are weeks away from the new year, 2022, doing our best to wrap up 2021, as we approach our year-end issue. While looking forward to taking a break in the action, as we will take our annual break between Christmas and New Year’s. Until then, The Beat goes on… the workshops continue, and the hard work behind the scenes for this one of a kind publication, The Beat Within. This week we deliver you readers a powerful dose of writings in our 26.47/48 issue. We are certain you will find plenty of powerful stories in this current issue. Big praise to all you writers who step up during our weekly groups or independently, thank you. Before you tackle this amazing issue, please take a moment to read our resident editor’s note writer, OT, as he delivers his latest story for us all. OT…!
I want to welcome you readers back to another edition of The Beat Within. This is OT reporting live to you from the Land Of Great Lakes, that shakes from quakes, but safe, so make no mistakes. Nicaragua! Yeah, it’s about 90 plus right now, and I’m here with my lemonade with a splash of orange juice! I’m going to go ahead and share a life lesson I share it with the hope that it will give you a perspective of blessings. From a recent the writing prompt/quote of the week. ”We enjoy the good times because we remember the bad times. I mean if you don’t have bad times to compare to, how do you really know how good you have it?” -Anonymous
I’m going to also show a little gratitude for my life and where I’m at today. Ever since I was young, I believe my life has been filled with challenges and obstacles. It’s always been a struggle for me ever since I crossed the border from Mexico and into California when my mother dragged me through 5 different countries and finally onto US Soil.
We were somewhere on the border, close to San Diego, with nothing to eat. According to my mother, I had only one bottle of milk within the last 24 hours. Man, I could only imagine the sacrifice my mother had made. Just imagine, if I only had a bottle of milk within the last 24 hours, that means she must’ve not have had even a bag of chips. I was about four so, I was old enough to eat regular food.
My mom was trying to get in contact with someone in our family from San Francisco, so we could get on the Greyhound Bus and get up north to San Francisco. If I recollect correctly, my mom went inside some McDonald’s to use the bathroom. We were literally loitering there for hours because the payphone was outside McDonald’s. She said I was crying because I was hungry, but she didn’t have a dime in her pocket.
Matter of fact if I remember her telling this story, she said there was “someone” in charge of making contact with everyone’s family that had paid the “Coyote” to cross them over the border. She for sure had not even one coin in her pocket. For those of you who don’t know what a Coyote is, it’s a person that smuggles people over the border from Mexico into the United States.
At the time I was a light skinned, dirty blonde hair kid. I was kind of cute when I was three or four years old (haha). Well, a random person walking out of McDonald’s bought me a Happy Meal.
I don’t even know if it was an actual Happy Meal or just a normal meal, but it would be another 24 hours before we would reach our destination, so that meal was a huge help. Bless that man’s heart and soul, wherever he may be, but that was 33 years ago. Who would’ve known that I’d be talking about that man some 33 years later. An act of kindness goes along way.
But that’s how life works. A small kind act in a time of need, lasts forever and enables that person that benefitted from that kind act to pay it forward to the next person who may need it. Maybe not right away, but at some point in life. There have been plenty of kind acts and blessings that I partially remember since that day.
I remember one time, I was in kindergarten and my mom’s spouse had abandoned us or he disappeared for like two or three weeks so he left us with no groceries and no food. We were still fresh in the United States, and during this time we lived in Daly City, CA. in a studio apartment. My mom worked sparingly, but since she was an illegal immigrant with limited experience, it was hard to find a job at times. Plus, my dad’s side of the family owned a janitorial business in the City and they would have my mom work graveyard shift and whenever payday would come they would just say, “You’re gaining experience.” So, her volunteer hours at that place came to an end once months passed by and my mom didn’t see any type of income coming in.
Back to my story, the apartments we lived in were in Westlake and there’s a mall right in front of those apartments that has a Safeway in it ‘till this very day. This was in the year 1990-1991, so there weren’t too many security guards or cameras. Of course my mom was slick with it. She definitely didn’t want to get caught. But my mom somehow would go inside of Safeway and pretend like she was shopping. She would fill up the shopping cart with groceries and just like walk out with the crowd, to not make it look hella obvious.
These were extremely dire times and I don’t know how my mom pulled it off, but she did it more than once without getting caught. My tia (aunt) eventually found out what she was doing. She lived right around the corner. That’s my mom’s older sister and she was the most responsible one out of the whole family. She started taking care of us by buying us groceries, even buying my clothes, plus my school supplies so I could have my pens, pencils and notebooks for school.
My tia was always a second mother to me, even ‘till this very day she always checks up on me. It was her husband, my tio (uncle), that paid the Coyotes thousands of dollars to take my mother and I to the United States for a chance at a better life. These acts, of kindness I am totally grateful for. Even though, I felt like I wasted my tio’s money because I’m currently back in Nicaragua after being deported, after serving almost five years in Federal Prison. So it’s back to square one.
But all that money is not lost. If it wasn’t for my tio spending that money, I never would have got to experience the so-called American Dream.
Life wasn’t perfect, but through all the struggles I had fun. I ended up loving sports. I ended up experiencing going to ballgames and watching Barry Bonds hit homers in McCovey Cove. I got to see Will Clark, Robby Thompson and Matt Williams at Candlestick. I played baseball for fifteen years and even though it wasn’t my mother who took me to my practices, it was several different coaches that always made sure I had a ride to and from practice. Shout out to my coaches!
I got to see the likes of Joe Montana and Steve Young bring a Super Bowl to San Francisco. I got to see the Warriors play at the then “Oracle Arena.” I made two beautiful twin daughters that live in Vallejo, CA., and even though we’re not as close as we used to be or would love to be, I know it’s a matter of time before I’m back.
I’m grateful for all friendships that I created. If my uncle hadn’t brought me to the States I never would have met The Beat Within! Never would have had this great relationship with Dave, Lisa, Kroll, and the list is endless. So everyone who has even gave me a ride, or let out a hand whenever I needed it, I now reciprocate that into everything that I do.
Part of being grateful is not just about accepting the blessing that come your way. It’s about sharing the blessing with someone else. It’s about spreading that same love, and compassion to those who you love and those who you may not even know.
So, even though life’s been hard and it’s still a struggle, I’m blessed to be here writing this, and sharing this moment with you all. Because the real blessing is when I get the opportunity to help someone out, whether it’s my family or someone I don’t even know. I just gave away a whole bunch of clothes right now, to some very poor people whom I don’t even know, for the holidays but I know they needed it.
I may never, see these people again in my life. But they may be forever grateful and one day remember me just in the same way I remembered the unknown man that bought me my McDonalds on my first day in America.
Be grateful for what you have and stop thinking about the things, that you don’t have. I know money makes the world go round, and it’s what we all need to live, survive and get our necessities. But you may have more than what you think, so be grateful for it, and turn around and help someone out. That’s the real blessing and that’s when you’ll learn how to appreciate your blessings. Y’all have it better than you think!
One love to everyone going to the struggle, behind the walls and outside these walls. Let’s stay positive and determined to better ourselves and our communities…OT signing out with all the love and respect! And The Beat keeps going and going.
Thank you, OT, for such an uplifting story. We are incredibly grateful to have you in our lives. We love you very much and appreciate all you do.
A big thank you to you readers for taking the time to read our latest editorial note. We certainly hope to hear from you soon. Your story matters to us. We can all learn from the journey you find yourself on. Until the next issue, take care.