Our Friend ( Anthony De Jesus)

Anthony De Jesus

   Anthony De Jesus is 25 years old. He hails from Queens, NY currently living in the South Bronx. He has one younger sister 20 and his mom and dad reside in the city. He is currently a youth leader/ office assistant at Friends of Island Academy and employed at a well known restaurant chain.
   Anthony has quite a story to tell. He grow up in the foster care system in New York City. Life in the system was not easy for him. Grow up being the foster child he often times had to fend for himself. Being the new child among the foster parents birth children was tough, because they could be mean and fights would break out. Often times because their parents seem to lose the attention for their birth children. As he grew he came to realize the difference between someone doing things out of kindness of their heart vice someone doing it to get paid. In addition to this he saw that there is an emotional connection to the people and the foster care system. Some of his experiences where good and others were not so good. It was a hard learned lesson. Furthermore the street life did call his attention at one point but that life turned out not to be for him. He went from foster family to foster family, all the while learning and growing to become the person that he is today. 
   Currently he works at Friends as a youth leader. He expresses and impresses his peers to use him as an example to achieve the goals they choose for their own success. Never give up on them no matter how hard it gets. Anthony feels that he has saved people around him by sharing his story. Many years ago a social worker named Mr. Rivera from the Children's Aid Society once told him " Think of yourself as a a river of water flowing, there is a big rock ahead of you, think of that rock as a life road block, when it gets in your way, pick it up throw it away and carry on". For him that road block was achieving his G.E.D that he received in September 2010. That was his crowning achievement as a teenager.
   Today his goals are to achieve greatness by working two jobs and getting a bigger place to live. " Nothing says more then showing the fruits of your labor" says Anthony. He dreams of one day going to college out of state and living the life of a success man. His inspiration to carry on is his mother. She has worked for 20 years in a well known big name store company. She hopes to one day own her own bakery business. In addition to this she owns a home in North Carolina. In Anthony's eyes she is a success because although she experienced heavy diversity, she never gave up on her life goals. He is proud of her.

A message to you from Anthony to all this blogs readers.

Anthony:  " time is one thing you can't get back. Getting caught up in doing the wrong thing is a waste of time. Every minute someone waits in Central Booking, waiting to talk to a lawyer, judge and processing is time wasted to do better things for yourself". Have pride in what you do. Pride to show off the fruits of your labor. Don't waste it. Because in the end life and time is to short.

Interviewed by Miguel A. Salamanca ( Intern from Monroe College)