San Francisco, Justice: Encouraging Encounter: "Street Smarts"

San Francisco, Justice: Encouraging Encounter: "Street Smarts"

Dwayne*, one the day after we first had our meal at St. Anthony's we we gathering the immersion group outside the building waiting for the others. when a man, who appeared to be about in his late twenties, early thirties, in a Raiders baseball cap, tan corduroys and carrying a black bag approached us.
He told us his name was Dwayne, and asked if we were college students and what year we were. He then began to describe how he was a college student at a CSU, and fell into heavy drinking and substance abuse, and social activities, while his grades slipped into academic probation, and further until he was kicked out and suspended from the university. He mentioned how he had three years there studying environmental mechanics of water systems, and yet fell deeper in to the habit of abusing substances while moving around California for several years. Originally from a two-parent household in Oakland, with siblings in the military from a middle class family, ha talked about how he would had been the first one in his family to graduate to a college degree and disappointment of his parents through his jail time and probation as a result of his substance habits.
Then, he mentioned an old friend he recently visited in the medical field who he knew in college, who had a family, and many others he knew were financially stable, who he went to visit. At the end of the visit the friend had dropped him back off in the tenderloin. Dwayne asked him how he had done it all, balanced a family, work, and managed to stay on his feet. The friend had told him, how he had grow up had with one a single mother with substance abuse issues struggling as an only child, and used his difficult circumstances as motivation to get to where he is today, in comparison to how he (Dwayne), had two parents and relatively stable economically.
Dwane had connected this story to us by saying he wanted to share a lesson with us on how one simple urge to "fit in" and be a part of a crowd partaking in substances and social activities ultimately led him down the path of "still trying to complete what he was supposed to 10 years ago, in terms of his education and life goals. Specifically he focuses on the message of motivation for the privilege and those who come from less privilege backgrounds, and how although it may be harder to find motivation with more resources which are harder to appreciate, he cited his own underappreciation of privilege as a downfall, and encouraged us to appreciate the privilege and opportunity of an education which will always ultimately be worth while.
Finally, Dwayne had revealed the fact he could hold his head up high today, was that he was dealing with his substance issues, and after his parole was able to enroll in a certification program due to his 3 years training and education from college in environmental mechanics. This opportunity then led him to a job opportunity and project with a local city on redesigning water systems, as he opened up his back to reveal his technical textbook, which he would proclaimed he reads all day long as a "ninja" on its dynamics.
An elder man, also served by St. Anthony's and member of the community, was listening and chimed in with his own lesson of being in solidarity with Dwayne's experiences, as a Vietnam veteran, and encouraged us to ask people and CEO "at the top", how they got to where they are and keep in contact with them (and not making the same mistakes) offering a different and important perspective on the benefits and creation of education and community.