Everyone has the right, at least in the United States, to make money anyway they choose too.
In college, if never before, the entrepreneur spirit inside of a person comes out and greets the rest of us, ready and willing to satisfy our need of whatever it maybe.
For some of us the hustle, or having to get on the grind, started way back when we were young and has only become better now that we have reach the college level.
The hustle mentality, in the most legit sense, is probably one of the most creative mind sets of them all, because there is just never one way of doing it.
Walking around campus, especially on the set or just by talking to people, it is amazing to see just how creative many people are when it comes to making their money.
Whether it is selling music or braiding hair, I can’t hate on those who know how to supply a demand that needs to be met. for they must also be able to take care of themselves as I am able to take care of myself.
Coming from various urban cities all across the country and knowing what we’ve seen, been taught and experienced, it’s easy to understand how our life lessons can easily become part of our now college lives.
It’s who we are and what we’ve been through, but at the same time, a line must be drawn.
In the short time that I’ve been here there have been to many incidents that has shown how we allow our past to dictate our futures.
Too many promising students who have allowed the street mentality or hood mentality that they have grown up with consume them and take away the promising futures that they could have had.
At some point we, as the friends of these people, must stop them and sit them down to have a chat. To explain that there is just a line that doesn’t need to be crossed.
Everything doesn’t have to be settled with such forced, rather a discussion to figure out how to solve the problem.
Sometimes I think that the street life and college life begin to blur, and people forget their true purpose for being here at FAMU or at any other university. And, that is to educate themselves and to grow as human beings, and to begin to see that they no longer have to be who they once were.
I think it can be done. Students can take what’s been learned in the streets and use it to their advantage in a positive sense in college. I think many have, and will, continue to do so; it’s all about where to draw the line.
The conflicts arise when people don’t know how to set limits.
There’s nothing wrong with getting your hustle on if that is what you have to do.
Camille Daniels is a second-year general studies student from Queens, NY.