It all started in late December, back in the early 1980s, in a small town called MCcomb, Mississippi, where I was born. I was the first child born to my mother as well as the first grandchild and nephew to be born into my immediate family. Growing up, I could remember people saying that I was such a pretty baby and how my mother would always get angry because people would ask her if my daddy was white or mixed with another race. According to them, I had good hair, especially back then. They would often say in my presence that it was no telling who my father was, and I would think to myself that with what I have heard about them, they were mad at the fact my mother was the better-looking one of the bunch.
Needless to say, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. When I was a child, my mother would always tell me that she was fifteen or sixteen when I was conceived by a deadbeat local resident of Summit, Mississippi, and that my grandmother was embarrassed and upset with her for getting pregnant at such a young age and later sent her to New Orleans, Louisiana, to live with her sister, who was my great-aunt. My Mother as well as others would always tell me stories of how she and my great-aunt could not get along because they had the same attitude and would curse anybody out, so my mother immediately moved back to Mississippi not long before I was born.
I always heard my mother discussing my grandmother, uncle, both of my aunts as well as certain others and how they were jealous of her, talked about her to people—mainly her man—and didn’t want to see her with a man. Most of the time when they communicated, it would end up being an argument, with mainly her cursing one of them out and then she would talk to me about it afterwards. It was neither here nor there because I still loved everybody the same, and as far as I could remember, I was always with my grandmother, and when we had family events, she preferred not to attend. She would always tell me that one day I would find out that my family was no good. She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know, heard, or overheard because I had overheard everybody talking about everybody at some point and time.
Even at such a young age, I learned to mimic the same behavior. One thing I could not respect is how they would talk about my mother, but did similar things or worse things than her. they were worse than she was, mainly the loudmouthed aunt who always proclaimed I would be gay when I was only an adolescent. I would always laugh at her because she was known as the crackhead, prostitute for sleeping with other people’s men that nobody really cared to be around because she was annoying. My other aunt was more of the one who was said to be sweet, always in church but was no different from my mother or the other aunt because she would bad-mouth them behind their backs as well but then laughed in front of them as if she was so genuine.
Through It All Description:
Through It All is a story about a young man from a small city in Mississippi, who grew up in a household with a family and in an environment that consisted of abuse—mentally, physically, and emotionally. He was raised in a single-parent home where he experienced sexual abuse and abusive situations that caused him to gain a hunger for success while at the same surviving in an environment trying to not conform to his immediate surroundings while participating and struggling with his sexuality. During most of his adolescent years, he experienced being bullied, degraded, and discouraged regarding his education, talents, and physical actions by his mother, immediate family, and extended family members. Every day he dreamed of one day being famous, exploring his talents, having lucrative career and travel the world. He was forced to drop out of high school to attend an alternative source of education but still was not satisfied. After experiencing even more family drama, jealousy, and other domestic concerns in his surroundings, he began to move and travel to different cities and experience different things. No matter where Marques was, he always kept the great advice his grandmother instilled in him as a child.
Marques began to find success and progressed more and more in different ways each time, whether it be knowledge, jobs, lessons he learned from experience or from being taught. After traveling to different cities and states and finding himself back in the same environment, he decided to attend Job Corps on two occasions, completing his education. Afterward, he was offered the opportunity to join the United States Army services where his life changed for the better in many ways with some unfortunate life-changing events. Over the years, he met many people and experienced many situations that had caused him to become the person he is today with the aspirations he has. No matter how many downfalls and challenges Marques has experienced, he maintained and fulfilled many of the things he always dreamed about ad continuing to pursue.
