“Greater than life,” my uncle said to me. December 18, 2013 I was suspended from my school. I was recently was suspended last week. Thirteen years old at the moment in time. I was suspended for ditching and being impolite to a substitute teacher. I felt I did not do anything wrong. So I was sent to my uncle Zak’s which I went there for all the wrong reasons. I was sent there to be given a lecture and a consequence for my actions at school. I regularly play Xbox 360 at his house I couldn’t imagine him giving me a lecture so I knew I was in for it. It was a long drive he lives in Thornton, I just kept thinking to myself how I shouldn’t have been suspended and it was the school’s fault. We finally arrived and I saw him standing outside with an angry wrestler face and walks up to me and says “Who do you think you are.” I stood quiet, just waiting for him to tell me to do something. He just stood there with an angry look. After we walked upstairs to his apartment I walked through the door I couldn’t believe my eyes, my grandpa, grandma were sitting on the couch facing me with an extremely humiliated look on their face as they just glanced at me then looked down, that was the first thing that hit me, it was the first moment I have ever felt guilty or embarrassed of what I had done, I had let my family down. They looked as if they had given up on me.

The first few hours were quite normal; the only thing was that nobody said a word to me. I didn’t care as long as I didn’t receive a lecture from anyone. The next morning I woke up I started watching television and my uncle comes out and watches it with me then he asked,
“Mero (my nickname) what do you want in life”,

I answered “I don’t know a job or a career.”

“How are you supposed to do that without an education?”

I didn’t answer; I was as blank as a paper, thoughtless. After a few hours of watching television I finally answered
I replied “I don’t need an education, you didn’t you seem to be doing fi,”
He cut me off,

“No I am not doing fine I pay over 500 dollars a month to pay child support I am paying 1,250 $ a month for a 2 bedroom apartment to keep a roof over my families head, which I only get paid 500 dollars every 2 weeks, you do not want that son, if you're not worried about education or your priorities then it’s on you, but in 10-15 years don’t look back on life blaming it on your family or schools not trying.”
Those words made me think my conscious knocking on my head saying knock knock Jovan are you in there. After he told me that I started to think, it’s not all worth it to ditch just to relax for a couple hours. That feeling lasted for a little bit but not long enough to feel different about my education. It lasted long enough to start to predict the consequences of my actions and start thinking smart.
The Wednesday talk, on Wednesday I was playing the Xbox 360 and he comes in the living room and hints me
“So do you still feel the same about what I asked you yesterday?”He was waiting for me to feel expectedly changed.
I joked and said “nope” and laughed

He jumped quick at me and claimed “ mero your greater than this, greater than life itself, because I know you're better than this, you do not understand the importance of an education, look at me for example 23 years old, 3 kids.”

He handed me a mirror and said “are you familiar with this Jovan or the one who wanted to go to Oregon University and play for the Oregon Ducks football team at the age of five.” I had forgotten that I wanted to play for them, it had been my dream. After that I realized my first priority is education because I can be better than what I was raised around. I was an all-star student, starting from kindergarten to fourth grade. I do not know what happened after that, but I knew it was time for me to make some changes in my life. My very close to first priority was my family I will do anything for my family. I remember my grandpa telling me and my uncle last New Year’s Eve that we were the men of the family, that we would have to protect them at all times. Michael J. Fox quoted “Family is not anything, it’s everything.”

When I finally left his house I finally grasped that teachers take time out their lives for us that want an education, and I know now that I have to be accountable for my actions, I had to do well in school for anything I wanted to be.” To do well in school you actually have to go and contribute. Then you have to do homework. All that will guide you to what you want in life. Will all that take place to me when I go back to school?