the youth yearns

During my usual late night rituals of reading, homework, laundry etc I came across articles about our youth in America. These articles caused me to think and remember a few summers back when I was a camp counselor for troubled youth in SE Dc. I spent 6 weeks mentoring boys between the ages of 12 and 16, yea it was a real experience. So most of the boys loved and respected me I'd take them to fields to play football and create games for them to play. The organization was comprised of mostly volunteers, I being one of them but it was a hell of an experience. One boy in particular Dante he was about 15 at the time, he was a rowdy, loud mouthed, wanna thug type of kid. After the first 2 weeks I had gained the trust of most of the boys mostly I feel because I didn't harass them when I caught them smoking cigarettes in the church parking lot or because I was the youngest counselor on the premises. Anyhoo I had a hard time getting through to him and he was often time disruptive to the groups so one day I took a chance and pulled him aside. I asked him what he aspired to be. His response to me was a dope boy, he had ambitions of taking over his block and being the man of sorts. My initial response was a laugh and I asked him if he had already started on this path. He told me he had and had no aspirations of even finishing high school. I shook my head and told him to come inside with me. Once inside I broke down the numbers to him. As follows so keep up hope if you're reading this you're decent with math. okay leggo. If you spend 50 to 75$ on a half of an ounce of mid grade cheap weed you get 14 grams if you sell each gram separately you get 140$ okay so you spent  let's say 70 so you made 70$ but how long did that take? You stand on that corner for 8 hours to make 14 separate sales each sale is a risk to your freedom and livelihood if caught by the police. So for 8 hours 14 sales and 70$. I then broke it down further a cashier can make 7.50 to 9.00$ hourly working in safety with little risk of arrest. You can bust tables and make that same amount in that same amount of time. If so fact o then 8 hours  at McDonald's at 7.50 so 8. times 7.50 is 84$. At this point his eyes start to light up. I told him if you are in fact selling drugs you should be able to keep up with the math. Next in this camp we gave young boys opportunity to learn skills and build relations with construction, woodworking, and  retail thrift stores. That being said if you (speaking to Dante) actually took time to learn and lead as he was a natural leader and get his diploma in a matter of 2 years he could actually be on a construction site where he could make 11-13$ as a beginner (His eyes really got big now) Then the math becomes even at part time 11$ an hour lets say 8 hours a day 3-4 days he's looking at 24-32 hours a week times 11$ an hour comes out to about 250 to 350$ a week leaving him free time to as I told him go to school, talk to girls, buy his clothes shoes whatever. I also explained to him that if he did in fact get locked up the odds of him going anywhere were down the drain. He just stared at me after this no snarky rebuttal....I felt bad and followed up with telling him that he is obviously a natural born leader as many of the other kids followed his lead and that he was actually intelligent and I saw it regardless if he felt no one else did. I admitted to him that I knew he was bored in the groups and the reason he was in mine was because I was the only counselor with the energy and patience for him but that wasn't a bad thing. I told to stop selling himself short and give himself a chance. He stared at me.... After a few awkward moments he told me he never thought of the numbers that way and that it sounded like the voice of experience. (I left that comment alone) He also told me that his mom was never home so he was never home and that no one had ever told him that he was intelligent. I told him that I saw something in him I saw in myself at a younger age being young, angry, frustrated, and really just self destructive. I told him I'd keep his secret and protect his tough guy rep if he gave me a chance and worked with me rather than against me that summer. That day I took him to lunch at McDonald's and after saw a great change in him even smiles and laughter. Here was a smart kid that just needed someone to believe in him. I never saw him again after that summer but I got a call a few years later from the church organization telling me that he had come looking for me and that he did in fact graduate high school and was currently working a construction job. I can't say that was my influence that caused this change in one troubled boy from SE but it warms my heart to think so.