(8/12) “DiCo brought in a new coach to smooth the transition. It was a black man. Maybe DiCo t
(8/12) “DiCo brought in a new coach to smooth the transition. It was a black man. Maybe DiCo thought that would make things better, but it didn’t. DiCo kept trying to explain himself. He’d be like: ‘Let’s talk about it, Jonathan.’ But I gave him the cold shoulder. Or I’d say something stupid, like: ‘If there’s no debate, I’m going to drop out of school.’ DiCo leaving was just enough of an excuse for me to start doing the dumb stuff I wanted to do anyway. Koreh had gone back to prison, but a lot of my other friends were still around. We were drinking a lot, acting crazy. I didn’t even say goodbye to DiCo at the end of the year. I was hurt. I told myself a story, about how DiCo couldn’t handle black kids. And that he’d never have another team like us again. But after a few months I started getting updates from former teammates. They were like ‘Haven’t you heard? DiCo’s coaching at another black school. And he’s got another winning team.’ I didn’t even join FDA’s debate team my junior year. I didn’t have the energy. That was the year my father found out my mom had an affair, and went after her with a knife. We got evicted for the eighth time. I’d started dating a girl named Nicolette, and she lived in Brooklyn. So I was spending a lot of time in Brooklyn with her. The funny thing is Nicolette’s house was ten minutes from DiCo’s new school. So I’d walk by it every time I went to visit her. It was this beautiful new charter school. There were brownstones all around it. All these kids had uniforms. It made me mad. It’s like: Why don’t I deserve this too, DiCo? Why did you get to leave? I know you were just my teacher. But you can’t just be a teacher in black neighborhoods. Most of the time you weren’t even teaching, you was trying to save us. And I did everything you asked me to do. I became a geek. I did all these bullshit paragraphs. And then you ran away. Why don’t I get to run away too? I’m living in a box. My parents are on crack. Every day of my life I want to run away. It wasn’t fair of me to think like that, but I was hurt. I felt trapped. Then right before my senior year, I got a call from Nicolette. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said. ‘You’re going to be a father.’” -- source link