My Transition

In the late 1980's Jackson Jefferson was born into a poor white family in the streets of Tacoma, WA. Tacoma may not have a reputation as bad as Compton, Brooklyn, or any other major city in the United States that are known as the "Ghetto", however, Tacoma, WA is right up there with all of the crappy cities in this supposed free country. The crime rate in the city which Jackson grew up in was enormous along with the drugs and sex scandals throughout this horrendous city. To make things worse Jackson's mother left the family when he was just a little boy. This lead to grief and poverty for Jackson and his 3 brothers living in a single parent home.

Jackson's brothers names were Tim, Chase, and James. Their dad was a hard working warehouse worker who after military involvement settled to work in warehouses investing long hours, blood, sweat and tears into the warehouse industry to provide for his 4 sons. With the abandonment of the boys mother Jim Jefferson, the boy's dad, had to take on the role of both the mother and the father. This was not an easy task for Jim and was not a easy upbringing for these boys either.

The struggle for Jackson and his brothers, however, was harder then you can imagine. This may not seem possible as they are white. However, the society that is forced around these young children doesn't care what color your skin is if you have no money the society will take you down and keep you down. In fact it seemed to be harder for the Jefferson's then it would have been for a black family in the same situation. The Jefferson's seemed to be the only white people in the neighborhoods of which they grew up. This made it harder for the boys to become friends with anybody or even get a girlfriend. Sure they had friends from time to time but most of Jackson's friends either ended up dying in a drive by shooting or ended up getting locked up for a drug bust. It seemed as if every time Jackson were to get close to anybody they would end up leaving him. This led to a lot of mistrust and anger inside of Jackson. Especially towards women considering the person that he loved the most in the world (his mom) was the first person close to him who left him and it seemed for no good reason.

The boy's father kept the fact that the boy's mom left them on a drug addiction a secret. He never really gave them a good reason why their mom left. He always tried to change the subject and keep them laughing with his jokes and tried to maintain positive attitudes in his house. He was always doing something to keep his kids happy or at least happy for the moment. Jim would always host poker parties and let the kids join. Jim made them feel welcome no matter what. He was not leaving his boys out on anything. This led to a good relationship between Jim and his boys, however, it also lead to a lot of early exposure to these kids. Not that the society around them wouldn't expose them to it sooner or later.

All of the boys knew about sex, drugs, guns, prostitutes and all before the age of 10. Most children had all tried marijuana by the age of 14 and Chase and Tim were addicted to drugs by the age of 15 and could never seem to get a hold of this addiction. James was the only brother who seemed to not be effected by drugs and fall into the pot hole society was creating around these boys, however, he became depressed with fights with his father later in his childhood and developed an eating disorder.

At the time that Jackson's brothers were becoming drug addicts and following the same path that their mother went down Jackson knew that he needed to do something to get away from this pattern of crash landings.This was what began Jackson's involvement with sports. He was always a hyper young boy and always had a lot of energy. This energy was what made Jackson's father encourage Jackson to join sports at such a young age.This was probably the best decision Jackson had ever made. He ran track & field for 12 years and became a very skilled athlete. He received such accomplishments as 2nd place in Nationals in the 2005 Summer Junior Olympics and a trip to state for his high school team 4 years in a row.

Jackson had some how conquered society and had become an athlete . Now he was doing good for himself and turned down drug offers at any expense. He was never going to let anything come between his shot making a name for himself. This was in fact what he did. His father moved him out of the ghetto when he was 14 and moved him into a nice house in the suburbs of Kent, WA. This was the only way that Jackson would become successful and he knew it. He was very thankful for being so skilled as an athlete and was planning on getting into college by using his athletic ability along with his academics.

Things were still hard for Jackson without having a mom around however and he was still scarred for life from what his mom had done to the family. This was what led to bad relationships with Jackson and girl's. He dated many girls. I mean who wouldn't want to date a star athlete. But Jackson never trusted any of them. Even his girlfriend Shannon who he dated for almost 3 years. One day though he realized that he was only going out with that girl for so long because he was so afraid of loosing somebody else. He didn't even love this girl and he went out with her for so long because he didn't know how well he would take it if he lost her. It was when he realized he didn't truly love her that he realized he needed to end their relationship. Jackson didn't even trust this girl after dating for 3 years. This was all because of how he felt about women after his mom had left the family. Jackson thought that since his mom the person who was supposed to love him more then anything in this whole entire world could just walk out and leave for no reason that any girl he ever dated could do the exact same. He held this state of mind throughout high school in fact.

It was until he met Alex that he had actually trusted somebody. He went out with her for a year and knew that she was the one he needed to be with. She did everything for him that a mother would do. She cooked for him and cleaned for him. He didn't only love that she was doing the things that he had missed out on over so many years but he loved that she took good care of him and cared for him as much as he cared for her if not more. There was nothing that Jackson could do to make Alex stay mad at him. This was what seemed to be true love. The feelings of mistrust towards women were slowly starting to fade as he grew closer to her and learned to become more understanding with people and more trusting. Alex was also the most beautiful thing Jackson had ever seen in his life and he felt like he was truly blessed to have something so wonderful in his life. With his track scholarship to college, and now this beautiful relationship with this beautiful girl Jackson had seemed to be living the American Dream.

Jackson and Alex were living together at this time as his first quarter in college started. They had both gotten into the same schools and moved into a house together around the school that they picked would be the best for them to continue their track careers and begin their teaching careers. Thats right. They both wanted to become teachers and were both Track stars. They seemed to be so much a like you would think they would hate each other. However, this was never the case. Even their birthdays were 5 days apart which was Alex's favorite number and their social security numbers were 32 numbers apart which was Jackson's favorite number. This relationship was very pure and loving. They had so much in common with track, school, birthdays and all. They also had another thing in common that they may not have wanted.

During their first season in track at college they both got injured. This was very bad news and was very ironic how both of them could get injured around the same time. Both of their injuries were very serious injuries and they could no longer run track. Jackson lost his scholarship and became very depressed. Now that he was without money he needed to get a job to keep up on his house that they had just moved into. They realized that the American Dream had some how came to an end and they had to get into the real world and work and go to school at the same time even though this seemed to be a very hard task. Jackson and Alex both got jobs and believe it or not they were hired on to work at the same place. Things for them seemed to get better.

Jackson realized that it was thanks to Alex that he even was where he was and should be thankful to be where he was. In college, out on his own, and making a name for himself. Which was what he wanted to do in the first place. At first he meant in the sports world however he is now making a name for himself learning and writing and becoming a well known author while still in his first years in college. At the same time keeping a job and keeping up on things around the house and visiting family back in Kent, WA as often as he could to help keep his life very busy and very fulfilled.

This is a true story about a boy who grew up poor and made a name for himself. He was the only son of Jim who ended up graduating high school let alone making it to college. Jackson was also the only son who didn't fall to a drug or alcohal addiction. As he may get caught up in the moment some times with drinking and gambling such as every college student does, he still keeps his head above water just knowing the path that addiction will lead to. The path that he is paving now is a path that all with a will and desire to overcome difficulties that society throws at us to follow and make a name for yourself as this true story can lead as an example to prove to youth of America you can do anything if you put your mind to it.