Death Wish

Cuervo threw the group for a loop with his confession. I was chocked up after he spoke. As the facilitator of this men's group, I was shocked by the morbid past these college students shared in common. I didn't expect to be confronted with such dark stories on a 4-year college campus.

As a recruiter at a community college, I've become accustomed to seeing the effects of trauma on young people. The bad grades that I typically see on transcripts are generally symptomatic of larger issues. In contrast, when I worked in the 4-year world years ago, I wasn't confronted with bad grades and family turmoil. That's why I was thrown for a loop during this particular session.

Mookie and Bleek set the stage for Cuervo to open up when they decided to share stories from their tragic pasts. Bleek really silenced the room when he talked about his father's admission of loving crack more than he loved his kids. As I contemplated how to proceed while Bleek wrapped up, I saw Cuervo's hand go up.

Me: Bleek, that was deep. Thank you for sharing that with us.
Bleek: These are my brothas, man. It ain't nothin.
Me: Cuervo, you wanna speak?
Cuervo: Yeh.
Me: So, who's the positive male role model in your life?
Cuervo: I guess you could say my dad, but he wasn't really around the first twelve years of my life. He said he couldn't get along with my mom. She made him a bad person so he stayed away from us.
Me: Do you have a relationship with him now?
Cuervo: Yeh.
Me: How'd that come about?
Cuervo: Before I left for school.. I was 12 at the time.. my mother told me her face would always be in the sky looking over me. I didn't know what she meant til I came home.
Me: What happened?
Cuervo: When I got home she was lying on the floor, and she wasn't moving. After about forty five minutes, I called my pops to tell him what was going on. I was in shock.
Me: How'd she die?
Cuervo: She overdosed on drugs.