A little perspective

From one of the kids I met through a volunteer program I coordinated, a Saturday morning enrichment program at their Englewood school.  Good kids, bad school, bad neighborhood.  Met Jasmine when she was in third grade, she’s now in eighth.  Have kept in touch with her and her cousins (Devonte, Tomika, and Emmanuel). Take them out every few months or so, last outing was to a high school football game and then to my place for make your own sundaes.  Promised them I’d take them out again “soon” — that was months ago.  Sigh.  Nothing like a text from an eighth grader from a neighborhood infested with common struggling-neighborhood infestations – drugs, gangs, violence, children who struggle academically, teen parents, unemployment – to remind you how lucky you are.  And that it’s really sucky to not keep promises to kids.  Especially on the heels of this text, that I got a week ago: