Mar
2015
I would like to tell you a short allegory, the protagonist of which is an old friend of mine. I quite frankly am not sure whether or not he would appreciate my contravening his image rights for commercial purposes; although, if I tell him I was simply using his unique experiences and endeavors to exemplify the potential difficulties and triumphs of life to help guide others in their lives, I am positive he would approve. Ill be sure to acquit myself of any guilt by confirming that with him later.
My intent, with this allegory, is to examine advantage and disadvantage as it pertains to education, and the relevance of those notions for you, the potential resident in one of innumerous splendid properties for sale in Boardwalk Meander Estate.
My friend Kareem Zubala (that is not his real name, that is a hilarious name for a super hero alter ego my best friend once coined), suffered plenty hardship in his yet short life indeed. Kareem, a member of a lower-middle class family who resided comfortably in a decent neighborhood called West Oak Lane in Philadelphia, had never lacked the means for a satisfactory life, at the very least. He lived with his mother, his cousin and his aunt, across the street from my family and I, on Limekiln Pike. His mother owned an average but good looking and practical car in a black Ford Focus, and they had the common American luxuries of cable TV, functioning house phones and cell phones, video game consoles, as well as access to the ever-lengthening reach of the World Wide Web. In addition to such comforts, both he and his cousin attended decent schools. Even though they were both quite a distance from the neighborhood, bus fare did not prove a challenge.
Although Kareem had so much at his disposal, and could quite easily secure a comfortably sufficient future, he was senselessly and mischievously drawn into unsavory company and activities in and around the neighborhood. Kareem often found himself skipping school to spend time on the unproductive and reprobate corners with his peers. While, I encouraged him to desist his involvement with his disreputable clique and pay more attention to excelling in school, he viewed me as a nerd and an absolute buzz kill. This, along with my disinterest in nearing such company led to a distancing in our relationship.
Kareem slipped further and further into the furtive world of borderline illegal activity until there was nothing covert about it. He discontinued going to school altogether. Mrs Zubala (also not her name), Kareem’s mom, plead with me to try and reach my friend, and be an example to him as a good student, an athlete and a college bound scholar with great dreams and ambitions. That I tried, to no avail. I saw little of him following these exchanges. I do feel it critical to note that there are altogether too many recreational facilities at Boardwalk Meander for YOUR children to engage in such deplorable aforementioned activities!
Anyway, my senior year ended and I departed to college in August ‘06 - Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina on a 95% scholarship to be a Division 1 NCAA student athlete. After a superb first semester, we all returned home for the Christmas break. I returned to the news that Kareem, amongst other things, had been arrested not long after my departure and had spent the last few months in jail. Upon his release, desiring to change the course of his unraveling life, he attempted to get a job to support himself having been kicked out by his aggrieved mother following his unquenchable appetite for trouble. Needless to say that few employers found him to be an attractive candidate.
Long story short (and it is very long and very unfortunate), Kareem spent the following two and a half years scraping and scrounging on welfare, simultaneously toiling to repair the relationships he had severely damaged. Fortunately, he did. Through the support of his repaired relations, he was able to fund his decision to return to school and complete his General Education Development (GED), which is a series of test that evaluate whether or not a person has average high school academic skills. He went on to complete a diploma in marketing from the community college.
Today, Kareem is a well-paid and important employee of a big department store in Cheltenham Mall, not more than a mile from where we grew up. He is doing well. In large part, his later successes were primarily facilitated by his desire to become a better man, but also by his astute decision to further his formal education. It is similarly his decision to ignore his education, such a pivotal commodity in today’s world, which catalyzed his hardships in the first place.
All this to say that if you live in the houses at Boardwalk Meander Estate, you are adjacent schools for every age group and with the value for education that prevails in your neighborhood and those that surround it, never shall such destitution befall your beloved children, and hopefully the friends they chose to hold dear. Education is one of the most important traits, advantages or privileges one can have, and you are in prime position to quickly and conveniently capitalize on it.
Please do. Their future…and ours, depends on it.
