I know this has nothing to do with JWs or anything, but I needed to talk a bit ?
I work with at-risk teens in a continuation school. Last night I learned that one of my dear students, a bight young man with a difficult past, born into a difficult world of gangs and drugs, was found dead, shot to death in East Palo Alto, California.
Miguel had just turned 18, but he always seemed older, wiser than all the other students. He came into math class, an old man in a young boy?s body, sat down, pulled out his math book and got to work. He did this each day. While his friends wasted time, or looked for reasons to get out of work, he did not. He always had a smile ready, even when it was obvious he was feeling down, or tired?maybe from a long night of hanging with his homies, maybe from parties, maybe from trying to sleep in a too-small house full of young brothers and sisters while mom was gone at work. He was such a great kid. Every staff member could see the potential in him. We invited him to be part of special projects, to be in clubs?we encouraged him, we loved him. But he would never join the clubs or help with the special projects?he had to be home by a certain time to take care of brothers and sisters, so he couldn?t stay after school.
Miguel seemed wiser than the other students, but really he was just as young and lost as the rest of them. The word we have from the students so far is that he was killed in a drug deal gone bad. But the chances are that is was really a gang-related shooting, and the students just don?t want to say it. Or maybe it was a gang-related drug deal?the truth will slowly filter out over the next few days. It doesn?t really matter: He is gone now, either way. He will never know what it is like to get an honest job, or to be19 years old, or 20, or 30 or have children, or??anything. And now his brothers and sisters have lost their father figure/big brother, and his mother has lost her son?
I have lost a student. One of my favorites. One I hoped to help?I will miss Miguel.
***********In memory of Miguel Felix**********
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