by Yoshua, San Mateo
If I only had six words to give advice to give my ten-year-old self it would be “Always stay on your ten toes.” Obviously I’d say way more than just that but since you guys asked for a six word phrase that was it. The reason why I chose those words was so he could be more aware of his surroundings. And by that I mean to know friends aren’t always friends, to know friends could be fake, backstabbers, and the list could go forever.
Since I’ve never had any family except my mom I saw my friends as the family I never had before. Seen them so much as family that in middle school I would call them brother. I had to learn the hard way that nobody gives a shhh about you. Nobody has every cared about me except my mom. Most people don’t feel the same way you feel about them. I’d tell my young ten-year-old self that you can’t trust anyone. I still make the mistake of trusting people. I always have even when I’ve been done wrong. For example, having an accomplice snitch on me.
When someone you know makes a statement against you it hits different. I’d tell my ten-year-old self so many things about being on his ten toes so he could prepare himself for the amount of fakeness there is out there in the world even though around that age he didn’t know that existed nor believed in it. Even though his mom ALWAYS told him that “there is no such things as friends in this world.” I just wish I listened sooner.