For what it’s worth, I suppose.

I was 15, in a foster home. The gang kept beating down one of my foster brothers and punking him. One day, three of them hit me up. The zeroed in on my backpack because I pieced it up. I told them what they name was, and it was B-Boy crew I was with at the time. So they said fuck me, fuck my crew, and I said fuck their gang. So they got all jumpy and big mouthed, and one pulled out a screw driver. I picked up my bike and said what’s up then? A neighbor came out of his house and started yelling and they left. I followed them around the corner to finish it, because I know this won’t be the last time. May as well let them know I’m not a punk.

Guess what? They all backed down. All they said was “we’ll see you later.”

So they came to my house a couple hours later, but with 5-6 cars full of ese’s. I saw weapons galore- bat, a few guns, even a chain (yeah, I know, a fucking chain, on some b-movie shit).

Sooooooooo I said, uh… FUCK THAT. I hopped out the back window and bounced. I waited, ran back in and grabbed a ginsu, hopped on my bike and bounced. I came home and my foster parents had returned. They were flipping out. What the hell was I thinking? They had to move me, and truth be told that was the only good home I had for my tour of foster care. It got fucked up over some punk ass cholo’s who tried to flex.

Could I have walked away? Yeah. That’s what everyone said, SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO BE A TOUGH GUY???

Except, my only choices were to take a stand or let them punk me out like my foster brother. That was it. There were no other options. It wouldn’t have ended with that incident. It would have continued. I allowed that situation to happen at a different school in 8th grade, and that got me nowhere, so why do that again? I’d rather not live in fear. I’d rather put a beating down on three guys and serve notice. At least then, the target on my back comes with an ounce of respect and perhaps a little caution. Otherwise, it’s open season.

The point is, in a tense situation like that where you’re faced with seemingly nothing but bad options, it’s easy to sit back and say YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS!!! These are split second decisions. Sometimes, people go for broke not because they panic, but because they are faced with trying to make the best of a bad situation.