The world I love-the people, the kids, my family-it inspires me every day. As a young boy, oblivious of our realities and social issues, I never thought that I would be a writer or an author. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and raised In Oakbrook projects, my dreams were small, limited I would say. This creativity, the imagination of mine, was not taught to me or emphasized in my school. Growing older and looking back now, I was lost. I wouldn't necessarily say that I was confused, but blind. I had no sense of self-awareness, or awareness of what was going on because I was manipulated and influenced to believe that this was the world. It was natural for the human body to endure such obstacles. I believe I started writing when I was sixteen. I wanted to be a rapper, the best rapper. This competitive field allowed for me to reach new levels to a point where I mastered this craft. It was beautiful, poetry with no pen or pad, but words rehearsed and orchestrated in my mind that displayed complicated wordplay and creative song writing. But this comes to show that in life, sometimes you don't know what's best for you, but that life will manifest in itself. There was a period in my life where I was a broken man, suicidal and inches from my own demise. Ready to jump off that bridge, my life changed. There was a purpose, something bigger, my little one looked up to me and there was no failing that. I had to find myself, I had to diagnose the problem. What I did was I studied my weaknesses. I separated myself from everyone and everything. The drugs, the people, and the city itself. I was everything that was wrong with society, and it had to be fixed and that's something that is done as individuals. I was homeless with no way out, I hated it; now I love that past because it humbled me. I went from selling crack and having money to being broke and starving with the streets being the pillow in which I rested my head. For me that was God's way of breaking me down to build me into this man I am now. I began to write again. I would spend hours thinking and studying. I started to love myself and found my soul, not through searching, but through the confidence that I can never present myself to life the way that life shall present itself to me. Now I can see, but what's the need for vision if one can't dictate what they see? And that's when Scattered to Perfection was born. My cries, your cries, the hope, the happiness, and life. I refuse to watch our future be taken from us. I won't take defeat lying down because it's comfortable. And if I die as the only man willing, which I'm sure I'm not, then so be it. I love this world way too much to just let it fall sideways. I thank everyone for this inspiration; the world wrote this not I. Love yourself, love your enemy, and remember I am you, you are me, we are God, and God is everything. A special thanks to Luis Claudio, for your confidence in me and this project. Love you, my brother. And Mom, the food that you're cooking up there is amazing. Love, Ronald D. Write
