I may be big, I may be huge, but I have the heart of a newborn lamb. 

Name's Garrett.  Garrett Perkins.  Most of my friends (and those who know me best) address me as "Goon".  Yeah, that's me.  I'm sixteen, will be seventeen come October 2nd.  I live in New York City, with my mamma Roe, pops Monte, and my four little brothers, Eden (12), Marcus (10), Icarus (7), and Joshiah (4).

People call me "Goon" on 'count of I'm so big.  I tower easily over most people (nearly seven and a half feet tall), and weigh at least 600 pounds easy.  I got this large-ness from some of my relatives on my pops' side of the family.  It's inherited, and I got blessed with it, for better or for worse.

My life isn't bad, considering I live in the projects.  In fact, the projects is where I met my best homeboy, Shawn Perkins, who has been sharing his story with y'all.  Our place isn't the best, or the safest, but with God's help, we've gotten this far.  I pray it continues.

Poor Shawn (and many people here) has (have) been through the mill, and then some.  Shawn lost his folks, and his granny, who is his caretaker, has been attacked, put into the hospital, several times. 

Then his baby sister, Q'uirionka, who's eight, nearly got raped earlier this year, and his other little sister, QuaNeesha, ten, got her face chewed up by a rat and had to undergo painful injections in her belly for a time.

He's also been threatened by the drug lords and thugs that frequent our area, and back in February or so, a thug shot up a baby who was in a car that was going by.  A drive by.  The baby couldn't have been more than a few months old.  It was horrible; I saw the whole thing, and it still makes me cry every time I think about it.

Anyway, back to my family, in particular, my brother, Joshiah.  He is in a wheelchair: he cannot walk.  He has a disease most people have never heard of; he has something called spinocerebellar ataxia, which causes increasing disability.  He needs a lot of help with a lot of things, but he can still talk (some), and he loves life.  Nothing really ever bothers him.  He's absolutely amazing!

My pops has to work all the time, so he and mamma can pay for his ongoing medical needs.  While pops works, mamma takes care of not only Joshiah, but the rest of us kids.  She does a great job; we feel blessed to have two great parents who only want the best for us!  Pops drives a bus for the city part of the time; he also works as a bartender on weekends.)

We could move out of the projects; however, the money poppa makes at his two jobs doesn't last long; it mainly goes for food for us kids or for our needs, like with Joshiah and his medical care, f'instance.

It's a hard place to live, the projects, but compared to a lot of people here, we have it pretty darn good.  And I feel blessed that we do; God is watching out over, taking care of us. 

When the druggies and thugs aren't rulin' the streets, we go to church when we can.  We go to a Protestant church not far from us; we look forward to Sundays 'cause we can dress up fancy, and I enjoy the hymn-singin' and the preachin'.  Brother Shackelford is a dynamic preacher; he knows what he's talkin' about when he delivers his sermons, which are always timely and interesting.

Well, I am going to run along.  Pops is calling me to help with Joshie, so I will go.  I will continue my story later on; until then, this is the Goonster signing off!  Take care and God bless you as much as He's been blessing us by keeping us safe!  So long!

~Garrett ("Goon") Perkins, aged 16 1/2.  :)

P.S.:  Some of my interests include reading (I'm a voracious bookworm!), playing b-ball (basketball, not baseball; I HATE baseball!) with my homeboyz, rapping, skateboarding, playing hackeysack, writing/gaming on the computer, and swimming.  So don't none o' y'all go callin' me lazy just because I'm large and in charge; I'm very fit for my size!  :)

~Goon.