STEPHEN

“Keep on moving dont stop
Learn Learn Learn
Love is the key to Happiness
God is my Father
How Long is this gonna take
Whats wrong with those people?”

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Stephen’s Story
Location: Gateway Center
Male, Age 38
“Keep on moving don’t stop
Learn Learn Learn
Love is the key to Happiness
God is my Father
How Long is this gonna take
What’s wrong with those people?”

Daniel Enger: (Interviewer) Good morning, Sir my name is Daniel Enger and I have the pleasure of being here today with you Stephen. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk, and I’m looking forward to hearing your story and learning from you. Today is October 20, 2021, and we’re here at the Gateway Center in Metro Atlanta. Stephen, my first question for you is a real doozy. Namely, please tell me the story of your life from the time you were a little boy up to the present day.

Stephen: Good afternoon, okay that’s going to be a long story I’m gonna try and keep it short. My name is Stephen my mom and my dad used to call me Boogie I was born in Lafayette, Louisiana and then I was brought to Cecilia, Louisiana where my mom is from cause we moved from Lafayette. There I started kindergarten and I was a pretty cool little dude running around the playground with all the children yeah you know, walkin and talkin to every kid that come around, I was real energetic so I played any game that was on the field, kick ball, you know what I’m sayin, basketball, monkey bars and everything like that. Then getting into the classrooms I was one of the smartest little kids in the class I would say cause in the first grade whenever they would ask the questions or whenever they would put the problems on the board, I was quick to raise my hand I would be the first person to raise my hand and I would always get the questions right to the problems, and they took me out my class and put me in the class with some other kids. The area where I’m from it was mostly white kids but it was a mixture but some kind a way I ended up with the white kids and a few black girls. Then moving a little bit down the line from there every little test that I would take on the Cat test, Leap test, State test I used to score like a hundred on em, so, I wouldn’t miss like one math problem but that was only in math cause I didn’t like readin too much, I would skim through the readin part and I would try and get the right answer outta that, so that let me know that I was pretty intelligent or smart as a little kid. And then I was like in a school play I was Santa Claus, then in the third grade my dad died I was nine years old so, that took a little toll on me and when I got to school one of the kids was like “F your dad” and I was like what the hell it’s like I’m a little kid I don’t know where that came from, but then that just throwed me for a little loop as a little kid so it was just somethin that just stuck with me until today and thereon I kept on. My dad used to smoke some weed and stuff so I seen him smoking weed one day my mom had some weed in her purse I ended up going in her purse and I found the weed just so happen that day I don’t know what I was goin in there for but I found the weed. So, I took it to school and smoked it with some friends and a after that I had to find some weed, I kept on finding the weed brung it to school gave it to my little partner which was one of my best friends, and he ended up one day somebody tryin to take it from him by the cafeteria and the Vice Principle saw this commotion going on and the weed came out and my name came up cause that’s where they got it from, 13 years old seventh grade and stuff like that, and I get expelled, went to jail and seen the judge and he let me go with a probation a little ting like that but he expelled me from all of a St. Martin Parish schools. So my mom had to pick up and move to Lafayette area which was the Lafayette city limits part of the Lafayette Parish and that’s how I grew up in Lafayette, and I was in the seventh grade at that point. So, at that point I met some new friends started playing I tried the little football, but it was a little too intense, so I didn’t play that year. Eighth grade came same thing I didn’t play, ninth grade came I decided that I wanted to play some football, so I started playing football got me a job met some friends they was you know, kinda like the people that wasn’t from the area more of like little town people. So they came from different areas of the; not just residents of that city or that town and we all kinda like got together and formed us a little group so we were the boys or whatever. Then started selling CD’s and stuff whenever CD’s first came out so I was hanging in my barbershop all day long and I would sell CD’s I was actually sellin CD’s like ten bucks long time ago. Then I would go to school with this book sac full of CD’s wit a list for the children to pick out what they wanted, and I would go back home I had to install my first CD player my first CD burner because they didn’t have no CD burners in the computer like that. So, I was sellin CD’s, workin at Burger King me and Eric that was one of my best friends, we got us a little apartment together when we first graduated when we graduated out of high school together. And a from there went to a lot of little proms, had a couple of girlfriends, I actually got my first car in the 10th grade it was a Cadillac 83’ Coupe Deville it had rims and it was nice tricked out. And I would go to school and these guys I used to fight all the time because I was from a different area and I was in they little hometown so I used to fight all the time, all the time, all the time, I would never stop fightin, even as a little kid I was known as the little kid. Well everybody would play at my house you know what I’m sayin they would come to my house I had the boxing gloves; I had the nicest bike, you know stuff like that just because you know, I don’t know. But a everybody would catch the bus at my house you know what I’m sayin, I remember this one time I got put off the bus I was suspended from school and I couldn’t get on the bus man I said aww man what imma do but the night befo I was tryin to devise a plan to run away and this was like in the seventh grade, so I said Imma run away and imma say that I got captured and they let me go and I came back home and everybody would be happy to see me so they ain’t gone whip me because I got suspended from school you know. So, that didn’t work I didn’t leave so I said okay Imma try and get on the bus, and I couldn’t get on the bus so, my plan came back into action I gotta go now. I went in the house and got my bike out the laundry room I mean got my book sac out the laundry room, went to the back and got my bike and I shot out. I remember I’m ridin past my school man these white dudes threw a bottle at me “get off the road nigger” and I’m like what the hell man and I’m like a little kid at the same time like when my dad died and the dude said “F” my dad I was like what is going on with the world, so I’m like okay cool and I’m runnin away at the same time. So, I get to this far little store man and I see Kenneth come to me and say “little Steve what you doin this far what you doin this early in the mornin, you like miles and miles away from the house” so I was like man I’m runnin away, he was like “no you ain’t runnin away (chuckle) put ya bike in the back and he brung me back to the neighborhood” cause he stayed in the neighborhood. So, he picked me up and told my mom just like I had planned it, she was all heartbroken “you runnin away” so she couldn’t whip me right, cause I was runnin away, it wasn’t bad no mo. Now I’m in high school and graduated and everything is going fine and after high school my stepdad he like was an offshore company and he worked offshore so he didn’t have no problem with gettin me a job offshore. So, you had to start out in the galley I started out as a galley hand and a BR hand folding clothes and in the galley, so, I got a good experience with restaurant services, but I still was on like an oil filled ship oil filled rig. So, quit that job I remember 9/11 that happened I was going home, and they had grounded all the planes it was 2001 I remember cause I was just had graduated from school and just started my job and I said oh no man, I ain’t gone back they gonna bomb one of these places and we’ll be way out there, and my mind was goin all over the place. So, I quit offshore and then I went back to school I went into a trade school and got me a pharmacy technician trade and graduated in that. And I was doing security work met this chick we start hanging out together I moved in with this chick it was my momma’s nurse I had met her, and we just chilled it was cool and time went on and I was on some drugs cause I was using Xanax and that made me a mean person. I remember me and her falling out a bunch of times because I was just so free minded talking, I would get upset and we’d fuss and this and that so, ended up breaking up with her. And continuing on with my life, I remember this one time whenever I was just had graduated me and Eric had moved into the apartment and this occasion my cousin he had come to stay in my room and it was his graduation weekend cause he was one year behind me, and I had just bought this car and I had two cars I had the Cadillac, and I had the Crown Victoria. So, the Crown Victoria was my newest car, so I wanted to drive that the weekend. So, man we drivin the Friday night shot out boom I hit somebody from the back crash boom, but it wasn’t that bad. So, the cop said go park that car so I said okay I left anyway in the same car went to party all night, then that Saturday and everything jus kept on partying and partying then the Sunday came time to come home man that same car, same road I totally lost the car fell asleep on the wheel, I called everybody to come and get me the police came and everything. Same policeman it was that Sunday morning that Saturday night the same policeman from the Friday night that told me go park the car on the same road not too far from my house you know same street. He had let me go with no ticket the night before from hittin somebody from the back you supposed to get a ticket he didn’t even give me no ticket, he just told me go park the car. So, the next time he see me he said, “man didn’t I tell you go park that car?” yep that was an Angel bro, and he didn’t do me nothin. And then they had another Angel when I’m in the car I couldn’t get out the car, so, I’m tryin to push the doe, push the doe, he come up to the doe I’m tryin to unlock it from the outside, you know what I’m sayin cause the window was down. So, man, a little man dressed in some underwear come and this part of Lafayette was undeveloped so you could see for miles you know what I’m sayin and I’m like I’m okay man, I’m okay man, cause he was like butt naked with just some draws on I’m like what the hell. So, I’m like I’m good man I’m good, so when I looked around I see my nose I had broke my nose. So, I went back down and I push the doe and the doe just opened boom, so I went to get out the car I didn’t have my shoe, I said where my shoe so the shoe was right here in the back I found it, put it on got outside the little man had vanished and was nowhere it was level grass you couldn’t see nothin. So, I went to the top and that’s when I called the same cop everything come back together and God pulled me through that you know what I’m sayin. And then I said I got real depressed Oh Lord, that’s when I said Imma go back to the oil field and get away from in town you know what I’m sayin. So, I went back to the oil field and started workin for Petroleum Engineering and a we tested oil, water, gas that oil well produced and a I started working for this dude Kevin Lanier out of Texas, and he took me underneath his wing showed me everything then he just out of the blue told me to come ride with him in the truck I let somebody else drive my truck and we went to the location, he talked to me about a bunch of stuff then when we got to the location he was like “I’m not gettin out the truck today no” you runnin the job man I was like 23 man and there was like a bunch of grown men in these trucks all over like a whole crew. So man I was like what he was like “yeah here you go” give me my clipboard and everything all of this paperwork and everything go do the job. I come out there and go do the job I set up all the trucks back up right here, backup right there doin the job. Months go on I’m doin the job these men like “Steve we like workin for you because every time we look at you, every time you tell us to do somethin you doin somethin you know what I’m sayin. I grew up on a farm in Cecelia with my grandfather he was a farmer, and he was like underneath the head farmer in the potato field which was the main source of income for our little town. My grandfather would hire a lot of men and he was real well-known around the town just like a real influential man, he had his own hog farm actually, I grew up wrangling hogs and sheep and stuff like that. And we had a cow here and there you know what I’m sayin they was killin em too fast, it was just clean em out and then killem, we had a bunch of horses I grew up around horses and stuff like that cowboy. I remember we used to pick pecans underneath the orchard me, and my grandmother, and my momma got three sisters and we all used to go all the children and the sisters, and the grandmother and maybe somebody else maybe one of my grandmothers partners would come, girlfriends or whatever. We would pick pecans all day long we would have about five huge sacks man I’m talkin bout maybe a thousand dollars’ worth of pecans. Cause I’m tellin you that they knew we were share-croppers so the people that we worked for owned a lot of land so whenever it would become season we would go pick up and then we would give them a percentage of what they were due. Just like crawfish ponds I used to go me and my grandfather ran a crawfish pond, but you know we leased it so we had to give them you know what I’m saying type of deal, but they used to call it share-cropper. I’m in the oil field I’m doing good man everything is all right ended up going to jail messin around with some cocaine I was about 25, 26 and went to jail the longest time I had ever went to jail and it was a felony and that was bad, and then I come out of jail and I kinda fall back into routine because I’m so young so I started doing some carpentry work cause I used to do a little carpentry around the farm and stuff, got into that real heavy then I backed up from that cause it wasn’t too much insurance and stuff you gotta buy all that yourself. So, I went back into the oil field again and I was doin hydro testin, and hydro testin was a whole nother ball game man and I never; I always worked 24-hour call I never went back to 14 or 7 to 7, I always stayed on 14-hour call all my life. And working like that I always had a lot of houses in different towns, I would stay in different towns and meet a lot of different people and it kept me alive. I had my first child at 25 and me and her mother we met off of a one-night stand so it really wasn’t no love there you know, I kept on messin wit her and when I came out of jail she was like my girlfriend so I went back by her for love and affection so we ended up having my daughter. And then I moved them out there to Cecelia I had moved back to my hometown by then and things didn’t work out so she moved back to where she was from and I took care of them from a distance, and after a while I bought a house for them and we all moved in right down the street from my mom everything was going fine. But I’m not in the country where I have a lot of things to do so, I’m startin to hang out with childhood friends and friends that’s not really doin nothin to pass time instead of you know not passin my time as I would have in my farm livin. Cause in farm livin things is built up all around you to keep you occupied in the right direction whatever the case may be. So, I didn’t have nothin built up to keep me occupied in the right directions everything that I was seein was entertaining the people and just talkin about life or whatever. And that wasn’t a good thing for me and that’s what was led me to the beginning of homelessness. Like not having nothing to do so when I started not having nothin to do I started drinking the drinking and the friends then jobs started getting a different person, the job started getting a person that didn’t have nothin to talk about, the job started getting a person that was negative because all he was around was negative people. So his speech started changing from this intellectual person to this real shallow person that didn’t have nothin to talk about because he wasn’t doin nothin. So, the people it wasn’t that they didn’t see the person that could complete the job, they didn’t just like the person so they had to get rid of that person because that person wasn’t the right jus couldn’t be around em so they had to jus let me go. I never been fired from a job, but I always had to quit because of the emotional toll of being pushed out, shunned off but I never been fired from a job because I always kept the job and did the job the way it was supposed to be done. So, now I gotta come back home and I told my girl that I lost the job and then I say I’m gonna start venturing off and doin my own business. So, I started mowing grass, I do decorating, a bunch of different things I started carpentry building dog houses, such and such things. Had a bunch of little projects you know but tryna build up around me so I would have somethin to do to keep me occupied. Now around about that time I didn’t stop hanging with the people that was causin the malfunction in my life anyway, so I’m even putting them into my life but I’m not successful enough to bring them wit me you know what I’m saying, I’m tryna bring them up so we could all be up cause I’m steady creatin a good world but and then it slowly tore me down because I wasn’t able to supply for it was just too big of a heart for what I was really able to actually do. So, it tore me down, tore down my house and a my children’s mom jus got tired of it and started reacting back to the way I was treatin her so, fussin started and I got kicked out and when I got kicked out that was it, that was back in 2012 and I been bouncin around from group homes from jail, to group home, from the group home I might get a place to stay but then as far as getting me back together I’m workin on that right now to build up my surroundings in the right direction. Because me and my children’s mom everything is pretty much going the way that God planned it and with that being said it’s all coming out to be good and my children and mom and I we have a good relationship and the homelessness part is clearing up because Gateway has opened these doors for me to come into it, and they been working with me they good people and so far this has been the best place I been since I been homeless. And when God came in and let me know that he was in control, and I let him take control that’s whenever all I do now is I remain the person that he made me to be and I walk through the doors and receive the blessings. And one day I’m gonna have enough blessings to where I can continually bless other people, so right now I’m just waitin on blessings to bless.

Daniel: Stephen, of all the things that you’ve accomplished or overcome in your life so far what are you most proud of?

Stephen: I’m most proud to say that man I’m just not a proud person I’m just a happy person I’m not a proud person, so I do righteous things and I do em right, and with a good heart and I have the right attitude so, I’m just happy I’m not a real proud person.

Daniel: Stephen, you’ve gained a lot of hard-fought wisdom in your life from the experiences that you’ve had so far, if you were invited to share your wisdom with school kids in your community giving them guidance to live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives what would you tell them?

Stephen: I would tell the kids that you know when you wake in the morning and it’s time to go to school you go to school because school has a purpose for you. When you finish school, you go to your house when you get to your house there’s things that your parents or your guardians or whoever you know that are running the house has told you to do there’s purpose for you at the house. You need to complete your purposes so you can move on from out the house to outside in the world, and when you get in the world there’s gonna be a big purpose for you also. And, to complete your purposes you have to be level-headed, you have to be accepted, you have to be like you were when you went to school and came back home cause in the world there’s going to be temptation to be or to enhance you to control you to invite you to a new world. So, when you get out there in the new world find your purpose and don’t rely on the outside world because the outside world can’t do nothin but influence you, you have to influence yourself. Once you stop influencing yourself you aint’t gone make it so never rely on the outside world just influence yourself constantly.

Daniel: Stephen, I’d like you to turn to today, in what ways would you say your life is going well these days? Please talk about how life is good for you at the present moment.

Stephen: Life is good for me at the present moment because my life has came from the sidewalk where people walk dirty I was sleeping out there, now I’m in a bed, I get food that’s coming from the pot, I came from no money and I been blessed every day. I come out here to Atlanta to start a new life and I ended up at the back of a building I was supposed to come into. Along the way trying to make it to the front of the building I got stopped and I took a detour, that detour took me two months to get to the front of the building where I was supposed to be going in the first place. That detour took me to jail, got me into fights as a grown man in the middle of the street, had me with suicidal attempts, jumping and throwing myself in front of a car. And right now, I have a job I’m talking to people during the meetings at NANA meetings, and their being influenced by me giving them positive, and right now I’m just moving forward with a bright eyed (chuckle) yeah, I’m just bright eyed right now man, that’s it.

Daniel: Stephen, what led to things going well for you today, how did it happen that things started going well, and who or what has contributed most to your doing well these days?

Stephen: Number one God, God has contributed everything because where I was whenever I was drinkin and druggin it wasn’t nowhere I could be found, and jus being good, jus bein good man is the whole key. Because if you a good person and depression is hittin you hard, hard, hard you just have to look for if you could jus give a little bit of happiness God could come and send something into that happiness and He could get you. You have to show a little bit of happiness and He could send somethin in the happiness. Because without no happiness, no kinda joy, if you jus mean he could send it but he can’t get in it, you have to break some kinda smile some kinda love in your heart cause he can’t get in it. I have so much love in my heart man He jus feelin me with the whole shebang, you know. I am Holy Spirited cause I’m just the amount of love is just that much.

Daniel: Stephen, looking ahead when it comes to you living a healthy, safe, stable, and happy life what are your hopes and dreams looking ahead?

Stephen: Looking ahead my hopes and dreams is that Imma continue on living this life with the purpose of helping others, because my magnanimity level for people is so high that I just want to care for people, and by doing that I’m going to take my talents put em on the front shelf and let everybody seem em and they can pick and choose what talent they want and let them use it so I can give to others. And as long as I can do that Imma be happy because I don’t need everything that I could make up that I need you know, so I don’t need it. All I need is food, water, and drink just as long as I can help others man because I’m happy, I’m happy.

Daniel, Stephen, what are some of the personal strengths that you have that you draw on as you pursue your hopes and dreams, some of your personal strengths?

Stephen: One of my personal strength and the biggest strength I have is thinking and knowing if I could talk to you and look at you in your eyes whatever you ask me it’s some kind a way that God’s gonna give me the right answer to tell you. I can’t not answer a question I have all the answers I don’t even know how I got all the answers, but I got it and it might not be somethin that the analyst might say but he would be like man how did you come up that close to the answer and it’s right you know but it’s not the correct answer. I just love the strength that I have to brighten other peoples days no matter if they mad or sad I could pick for a smile, I can pick a smile out of you I’m able to learn and follow and help people grow their things if they need a hand you know, I’m a good right hand man I’m the best right-hand man for people. So, that’s one of my strengths I could help you if I have it or I could help you get to where you need to be as if I have to pull you up the ladder or you vice versa.

Daniel: Stephen, what challenges and obstacles do you see standing between you and the realization of your hopes and dreams, what holds you back?

Stephen: What holds me back is the same thing that makes me strong caring too much I want to talk to everybody, but it’s not everything that I get into can like make my mind shift to a place where I can’t even help. So it’ll leave me stuck in tryna think of a way to help this person and not knowing if the person gone be alright once I leave em. But right now, I don’t see no obstacles in my way, I don’t have no obstacles man.

Daniel: Stephen, what needs to be done so that the challenges that you face can be overcome and you can realize your personal hopes and dreams?

Stephen: The challenges that’s in front of me I need to jus keep on expanding my vocabulary so that they can understand me I need em to jus understand what I’m saying. As far as believin me they gone believe they jus need the right influence and the right person that can give empathy, I can feel the people I just wanna yeah jus talk to the people man I wanna talk to the people and jus…..

Daniel: Stephen, I’d like to turn now to your community. Stephen how would you describe your community in the sense of who are the people who make up your community?

Stephen: People that make up my community it comes from all different kind of backgrounds, you got city people, country people, you got a mixture of people man people that want to work people that don’t want to work, mad people, sad people, angry people, you got all kind of people man liars, cheaters, you got all kind of people and it’s a lot of people around, it’s a lot of people a lot of different people and they don’t stop, they are who they are they don’t stop.

Daniel: Stephen, when it comes to living a healthy, safe, stable, and happy life how would you describe the hopes and dreams of people in your community, the people in your community what are their hopes and dreams?

Stephen: Their hopes and dreams is to get back to society and continue on being a productive person and I think everybody is moving in the right direction. But as far as love we need to find love because love is needed they need to find love. Love is not just a saying or nothin like that it’s a action in a well-being is the key to happiness, if you love is the key man it don’t matter what they got goin on to be successful or whatever, bro if they don’t have love, it’s not goin never, it’s not goin never be a part of the society. Unless you got love you ain’t goin neva be a person of society. You can be productive all you want if you don’t have love we not goin talk to you so you could always; just like I said you can work for it but you ain’t love your not a part you not a part of the world. The world is love God is love the world is love everything outside of that, nothin.

Daniel: Stephen, in your community what are some of the strengths that people draw on as they strive to realize their hopes and dreams and live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives, what are some of the strengths of people in your community?

Stephen: The people of my community have a lot of strengths they have good paying attention skills, they have a lot of good men around here there’s a lot of good men. Their strengths is that if you can make them put the right energies in the right directions you can get some good people cause they so full of energy. They have a lot of energy but they putting they energy in the wrong directions, but if you could get they energies out of them directions, and stop practicing some of them not right directions. But they all have a direction but the big picture you gotta constantly put it in their face to make them realize and focus because they lose focus so fast cause they energy is so much cause they get caught up into something and they produce they energy don’t have nowhere to put they energy. if you could put they energy into whatever they need to be wit a person wit vision they could be productive people and have them focus on love.

Daniel: Stephen, what are some of the challenges and obstacles that make it harder in your community to realize their hopes and dreams and live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives, what holds them back?

Stephen: What holds them back is the falseness of them thinking that just because their being productive is making them think that their being productive when they not being productive their just producing but they’re not being productive. They’re producing money, they’re producing items clothes, jewelry, haircuts, they’re producing the nice appearance but they’re not being productive. As far as any kind of idea they don’t have no idea they’re producing but they’re not being productive because they only producing, they jus producing you know. Jus like you could produce children what you gonna do with the children once you have em you know what I’m sayin, you don’t have no idea what you gonna do wit it once you get it. You can make the money but you not being productive wit the money, so you ain’t doin nothin.

Daniel: Stephen, what needs to be done so that the challenges that you just talked about, and obstacles can be overcome and people in your community can realize their hopes and dreams and live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives. You just talked about challenges and obstacles for your community what could be done to overcome them?

Stephen: What could be done to overcome them. Well, you can . . .  they actually moving in the right direction to overcome em it’s just that sometimes others take longer than others you know. Because of little bitty things like they ain’t let go like problems of the world they might they need to let go like somebody to help em say let go. Because things that you don’t let go create problems that you can’t move forward that you think you need to finish up. It’s like coming into a shelter when you got your car parked outside and you don’t have no insurance on it and it gets towed, now you tryin to focus on gettin a car out that you don’t really need right now.

Daniel: Stephen, imagine you’re a powerful leader a decision maker who could really make things happen how would you change the system to help people in your community realize their hopes and dreams and live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives? Imagine yourself as a powerful leader and you can change the system what would you do?

Stephen: I would have to start off by non-stop arts and crafts, arts and crafts would be the main focus, I want to see you do some arts and crafts it doesn’t matter how you scribble and scrabble on it, I jus wanna see how you scribble and scrabble on it. Because if you’re not taking pride in how it look then I know something about it. But we’re gonna do that until you start painting in the lines you know what I mean. I want you to love what you doin I want you to once you start painting, I give everybody a picture I want you to color the same picture every day for a week and I want to see your mind take off every day even though you finished painting Imma give you another same picture and do it again. And every day every time you complete that picture it should be different so you’re either gonna keep scribblin out the lines its gonna keep lookin ugly or you’re gonna start painting in the lines. And you gonna start makin it pretty you know what I’m saying you gonna perfect it so everything that they finish doin they should perfect everything to perfect so that they could at least strive to perfection they goin be alright you know what I mean. Because nobody gon do the same thing twice if it was wrong you ain’t goin do it not back-to-back to back so that was the back-to-back to back just keep givin them the picture everyday like you gotta focus em in on one thing little bitty, bitty, bitty before a long time, you know what I mean. Because you got to get them to perfect it don’t matter about not being perfect nobody goin be perfect but if you can strive for perfectionist then you ain’t gone have no problems. What you goin tell a person that tryin they best nothin.

Daniel: Stephen, my last question for you. Imagine you had a million dollars, and you could use it to help your community to realize their hopes and dream and live healthy, safe, stable, and happy lives how exactly would you spend that money?

Stephen: How exactly would I spend the money. First, I would have to establish a place for us so that we could never, ever, ever not have a place to meet up. So, once I establish that place for us to meet up, I need to make sure that place is gonna stay there and I’m gonna have to create somethin to produce to help us be productive in our place. Because we’re gonna need of course, more money to keep our place there for ages and ages or whatever to come. And while the place is setup the money that’s left over is gonna go to other things that’s gonna help us put the love out there cause we’re gonna need things inside the building to get the love out there man. And every time we walk out the door it’s gone be nothin but love, love in and love out and then I done did my job, I done did my job producing more love, I’d produce more love with the million dollars. Cause love is already there and if you producing love with the money, money should come for you to keep on producing love because love is gonna produce itself yes, it’s gone produce itself nonstop.

Daniel: Stephen I’m really grateful to you, I’m really grateful to have had this chance to get to know you, to learn from you and to soak up your wisdom. Thank you very, very much.

Stephen: Your welcome Sir.