I Have

I have crawled.
I have explored.
I have taken my first steps from my mother's arms to my father's,
Hence taking my first steps toward my future.
I have climbed the Mt. Everest of pillows in my room and I have jumped lava from the basement all the way to the cookie jar.

I have picked my nose,
eaten dirt,
hit,
scratched,
kicked my little brothers.

I have thrown balls in the house and I have faces the wrath of the wooden spoon on my butt and hands more times than I can count.
I have gone to school.
I have skipped school.
I have lived at school from the age of five.

In school I have learned a lot.
I have learned to read,
write,
use the bathroom,
wash my hands,
eat,
sleep,
breath.
I have learned about citing sources.
I have remonstrated,
I have supplicated,
I have prostrated myself before the throne,
And I have learned that those three lines are plagiarism unless I site their source.
So I have sited them as Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech.

I have grown.
I have lived.
I have been forced to choose between fight of flight.
Sometimes I have picked flight over fight.
Other times I have picked fight over flight.
There have been times where I have decided to fight the flight or use flight to avoid the fight.
After all I am a lover not a fight but I will fight for what is right so my dreams can take flight.

Speaking of dreams, I have dreamed.
I have dreamed of dreaming for as long as I have lived.
For as long as I have lived my dreams have been nightmares.
You can't imagine what I have seen.

I have seen the sea.
As the sea I have seen Sally selling seashells down by the sea shore.
However, in my nightmares, Sally sells seashells no more.

I have seen the death of friends,
the death of family,
the death of me.

One time such a dream became reality.
I have dreamed of the death of a friend.
The next day we hung out.
I said "I'll see you later," only to find out that 'later' was his end.

I have been notified over the phone.
I have rushed to the scene with tears in my eyes.
I have never forgot the image of a lone shoe lying on the road with the car's skid marks directly in front of it.
I have seen the road below it,
the cones around it,
and the helicopter carrying my friend's dead body above it.

I have crumpled,
I have grieved,
I have cried,
screamed,
begged,
pleaded,
prayed for God to return my friend.
But God remained hidden from me.
So I have lost my best friend, and with that friend my faith.

I have lived in the dark in the months that followed.
I have seen the dark but in that dark I have found the light.
I have learned to take the bad and turn it into the good.
I have told my story to those who needed my words of wisdom.

I have been people's rock.
I have been their guide.
I have been their last hope,
their last chance to see the world in a new light.

I have walked the walk and talked the talk.
I have been walking the walk and talking the talk all of my life,
and now I am walking and talking
and talking and walking the walk and talk of life.

I have been living,
loving,
laughing,
dancing,
singing,
breathing,
thinking,
being myself and never giving less than my very best.

I have loved through all the hate.
I have seen when all is blind.
I have been making the impossible possible by possibly being the most impossibly loving,
caring,
selfless,
thoughtful person in the whole of the world.

I have told you my story.
What have you done?