Audio File
Transcript
My name is Marilyn Austin. I was born January 24, 1967. My Hill District work is helping the homeless and the young kids that’s been out here. Some of you are fortunate. There’s some younger than y’all that’s out here homeless. Did you know that? Some of them with their mom, some of them with their family, I work with these people. My childhood was not of here, of Pittsburgh. My childhood was in the country, Winston-Salem, NC, where people are more peaceful than our area. See, y’all got everything close together, you know? Your stores and stuff, look at the buildings. We had lots, OK? Next door to each house was a lot for you to plant and little kids to play playgrounds on and play in next door to the house. But the best part of it was we had a lake in the back of our house that we could take tires and tie em to the tree and make swings and jump out in the water every day in our backyard. So down there was more peaceful because the people was more together about kids and the neighborhood and the homeless and everything. They looked out for everybody. My family is like any other family, they’re pretty cool, but I regret that I trust them because a lot of discrepancies of evil came upon me because I trusted a lot of evil in my family, and it wasn’t because of the street. It was because I was trying to be like my family, and I got messed up trying to be like… and my family, they ditched me, and left me when the things got bad, so that’s basically what my family was about. Maybe some of y’all’s family might be a little weakened caring for you too, but families is going to be family, so you can’t be like… If it’s bad, don’t be the way the bad part is, look for the good part you know? And add that somewhere because it helps the family. Don’t keep adding evil and meanness and “I haven’t got this, so I’m gonna take it out on mom. I’m gonna… I ain’t got this so I…” tantrums and- no, that ain’t going to get you nothing but a behind whooping or now they don’t play that. That ain’t going to get you nothing but out of the house homeless early. I grew up on 5th Ave. My neighborhood was scary because we used to have to walk past a lot of evil people to come home from school. They stand on that corners all the time, and the evil that they did, they try to inflict it on us. And a lot of my friends, my mom told us not to go past them because they would do something, and I believed my mom. And sure enough, one of my friends went past them and they grabbed him and they stuck him with a needle and took him in the alley. And he became a dope addict. And we tried so hard to join together to help- stop him. But that was part of his being hard headed. That’s why I say listen. Pay attention. The only way I felt safe in my neighborhood is when I did me. I looked. Before I come out my door, even bullies- I’m going to tell you something about bullies, you can avoid em. Most bullies, they jump you after school, they get their little team and-you know? Some of them can do that. But here’s the thing. Pay attention to around you. Because if you’re looking at things and see things before you go out that door, you can stop it from hurting you before it get to you. Not paying attention can get you killed. My role models was people that was there when my family wasn’t for me. Y’all might know some of them people in your neighborhood or somewhere. They are the ones when you really have a problem, you can go and talk to them. It may be older, maybe younger, maybe- that’s your role model, somebody that tell you the truth. “Oh. Man, don’t do that.” You got a lot of young people out there, they was cutting themselves with the, you know, problems and situations. That ain’t cool to cut yourself, don’t cut. So basically, the role model I had was people. It could be older, younger. I’ve had older, younger that told me the right way. If it ain’t right, then they ain’t for you. Everybody know when somebody’s telling them right and somebody telling them wrong. “Oh man. Go get it,” you know? “I ain’t got no money.” “Go get it.” That’s wrong. But when somebody tell you, “Hey, man, you got to work to get it, but I’ll help you out a little something now,” you know? That’s right. That’s a friend. Y’all got to sort that out, who your friends are. All these growing up with you ain’t your friend because as you get older, they separate and they’ll ditch you for another friend. Don’t you see friends ditch em for another friend? There you go. You be like, “I thought he was my friend, we used to…” Sorry dude, he’s doing it with him now. So they better friends than you was, OK? It’s hard being a kid, you know that? You ain’t got no money. But you have to get some right? To survive, not the wrong way. The wrong way’ll get you in jail. Just don’t go down there. I’m telling you. Now, you got enough time to decide what to do with your life, to grow up and do what you need to do for your life, so you won’t end up there. Get it right. You got a chance to be young adults, because you’re growing up. You never grew back down.