Day 14: Allie

Carmelo

When it comes to the boys in True Notebooks, I think if they grew up in a different neighborhood but had the same family they may or may not have found a different lifestyle.  A lot of the boys have been influenced based on their family life, so I believe if they were raised in a different neighborhood with the same family and their family had a better lifestyle, their lives would be better too.  Although I think some of the boys are smart enough to realize that if it's only their family making bad decisions and everyone else in their neighborhood is living the right way they would live the right way too.  You can't choose the family you're born into, but you can change the way it affects your life.  If these boys lived in a different neighborhood they might've had more options available to them instead of feeling like joining a gang was their only way out or a way to fit in.  A lot of it has to do with unfortunate situations they've been put into and not necessarily that they like the life they live.  Most of them don't and most of them realize it's not the life they want to live when they get out of prison.  Had they had chances sooner or maybe taken them while they had the chance it would've prevented them from making bad decisions and ending up in prison.  Like Dana Gioio said in his speech, it's all about location and geography.  When you're in a place where you have many opportunities, you're more likely to go out and take advantage of what's around you.  That's why so many people who live in less fortunate neighborhoods often get into careless violent activites, because that's all they're around and that's all they know.  If these boys had support from their family and community 100%, I have no doubt that they would be in a better off situation, with a new and better chance for their life.


If I was sent off to live on my own at the age of fourteen, I honestly think I would be able to survive.  I've always been very mature for my age and even though at fourteen I wasn't as mature as I am now, I knew a lot about the world and my surroundings.  I feel like it's easy for me to adapt in almost any situation, having been thrown into so many in my life that being sent to live on my own would be no problem.  I've always been an independent person; my parents separated when I was four and even though I've been close with my mom my whole life I'm an only child so when she was at work, which was almost always, I would be at home alone and have to cook and clean and do everything by myself.  I like having her do things for me, but if possible I could do it all for myself.  I think I would definitely look at the world in a different way if I was sent to live alone when I was fourteen, and I might be more isolated and lonely now but I think I would be very capable of it. Sure there are things that would be totally new and probably scary to me, but I think it might've given me a chance to grow up quicker and maybe avoid some of the stupid mistakes that most teenagers make.


Natalia

In True Notebooks, a lot of the boys have mentioned how ashamed their mothers were of them and how they were trying to change for their mother.  I think that their mothers are hurt and upset that their teenage sons have gotten into a lifestyle where they may end up being locked up in prison forever, but I also think that if their moms could see how they are in writing class they would be impressed.  Although they may get into fights with other prisoners every once in a while or break some of the rules, when they go into Mark's writing class they are well behaved boys for the most part, or at least trying to be, and their writing is actually really good.  I think their moms would be proud to know that they're actually trying to change, and that they are not only changing for themselves but for their moms as well.  A lot of them want to take back the hurt they've caused and are trying to feel empathy for their family and the situations they've put them in.  Even if they end up convicted for life, I think their mothers would be proud to see their writing and really show that they love their moms, and hope that they will eventually get the love in return and maybe even forgiveness.


When I started growing up and developing into a teenager, I think my parents were horrified.  With me being the only child, they had never experienced raising a pre-teen daughter and as I got older although I was still a polite well-behaved person, I was turning into an overly social, boy crazy teenager.  I would constantly want to go out with my friends, ask for money all the time to go out to eat, or to the mall, or to the movies.  I would have a new crush every week and my mom caught me on the phone talking about how cute I thought a guy was all the time.  I think it kind of freaked them out because I had gone from a happy innocent child who hated all boys and thought they had cooties to being boy obsessed and addicted to shopping.  I think it's like that for all parents though; when you mature into a teenager and then into adult you're bound to change, it's just a matter of how much you change and if it's for the better or for the worse.  I definitely had my rough phase where I'm sure my parents had no idea what to do with me, and I've gotten into more trouble as I've gotten older but sometimes I think it's a way of life.  The important thing to remember is that you learn from your mistakes, and to not do flat out stupid things.  I've driven with more than one person in the car when I wasn't supposed to and came home an hour after my mom told me to be, but I've never made stupid decisions where I've had to think to myself "could I end up in prison for this?"  I do believe everything happens for a reason though, and I think that if I hadn't been such a crazy person in high school, I wouldn't be the person I am now.  I say that because of an incident that happened in the middle of my senior year which landed me here at Columbia.  I've wanted to go to college in LA since I was twelve years old, and my mom made me come to school here because she didn't trust me being far away.  I am so glad she sent me here and made me join the bridge program because right now I feel like Chicago and Columbia College is the perfect place to me.  Even though it took a screw up for me to realize this is where I was supposed to be, I'm glad that it happened rather than me moving all the way out to LA and hating it.  Change is bound to happen within everyone as you grow up, I just believe that it all depends on how you handle those changes.