25 Mar Khalid’s Corner: Cleaning Up Your Life Is a Job

Words of Wisdom from Community Elder, Khalid Elahi

I thought that I was going to push the street lifestyle to my very last day on earth because somewhere along the line I began to believe that 1+1= 3. But things began to change for me when I woke up one morning and I was in a cell in San Quentin with a sickly old brother who was on drugs and he had TB. I told God right then and there that if he got me out of this, I would be the very best person that I could be.

Cleaning up your own life is a job! Once I started thinking correctly instead of destructively, I felt extremely good about myself and I thought it would be cool to help others do so as well.

Many of us bought into the lie because they had kilos of cocaine flowing through our neighborhoods when we were young, as though it was legal, so getting money became the name of the game. I don’t have to tell you all about the damage crack and guns did to our people, but damn, why did it have to kill all of our family members and friends?

Many of us see the light and we are smarter now. When the Devil had me in his grip, he failed to finish me off. The Almighty took me from a mess and made me fresh. The bar is set high now and I know where I’m going.