I never chose this

I never chose this

Don't blame me for I never chose this!
Poverty victim, youth unemployment contributor, crime initiator and sometimes teenage pregnancy influencer.

Don't blame me for I never chose this!

Poverty victim, youth unemployment contributor, crime initiator, and sometimes teenage pregnancy influencer.

I am not proud to carry these titles under my belt, but when my dad lost his belt and brought me to this planet, there were already waiting for me.

You see, my arrival on Earth was already a deserter and inconvenience to my mom as though I left my previous destination with an emergency departure. I came between her and her final examinations, and just like those multiple questions, she had to choose one answer from the above scenario; although I was chosen, I still wonder today if I am the correct answer.

Dad left when I was 4 years old in pursuit of good times that came with good girls who turned bad, yeah fun times, the type of fun that came with being a youngster. I blame no one, but how do you trade fond times with your second boy for good times with your second girl? When I was 5 years old, Mom became a dad, leaving school to feed us, leaving home to grow us, leaving me with no dad.

When I was 6 years old, Grandma became my mom while my real mom worked as my dad should have in Johannesburg. With no one but herself and a picture of her son, she was hustling, struggling, trying to put food on the table. Memories of me running down our sandy road with an empty wheelbarrow to meet her at the bus stop once a month still fill my mind. Her warm motherly scent mixed with foreign smells from the heavy overloaded grocery bag she held firmly with her soft hands.

Bonono Baka! She would shout as she tightly hugged so close to her heart my legs would be lifted from the ground, this would be followed by a long series of disordered kisses all over my face as though she was blind, and with teary eyes, she would smile and ask how I was doing.

Yes, I know that I am a mommy's baby and daddy's maybe, but I never chose this; poverty victim, youth unemployment contributor, crime initiator, and sometimes teenage pregnancy influencer.

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