“If you can survive here[in the ring] you can survive in the real world, ’cause ain’t nobody in this fight but you.” -Old School, Kronk Gym Detroit
While visiting Kronk Boxing Gym in Detroit, we came across the wisdom of Old School- A 60 something year old boxer. He was the loudest and most energetic fighter in the Gym. Then the cameras came on and he kicked it into high gear, giving us some game, and even made up a word along the way. Watch the video…
Reaching this Last Mile.
This spring, I am a final year student at Columbia University. Reaching this Last Mile has taken a lot of work, dedication, determination and sheer will. I will not have reached this Last Mile of my journey without the support of people who believed that ordinary people like me also deserved to dream and realize those dreams.
I arrived in New York City from Ghana, West Africa in January 2005, with $30 and change, a spring jacket, a heavy Ghanaian accent, my best and last shoe and an address to the home of a distant-distant relative in the Bronx. I came off the Metro-North at the Fordham station and was ushered by a blizzard into the dance of a long awaited performance.
I had received admission into Columbia University, but unlike my friends who were heading into college, I needed to raise additional funding for school.
The music was already playing, the rhythm sounded familiar, but the tempo was beyond my pace. The elements in me were in a constant state of awe. Without permission, overwhelmed by the initial “mis-orientation,” and inadequate preparation that novels couldn’t translate, I was in a concert whose conductor seemed to be taking a break.
Watching coming to America 3 times a day, two weeks before my arrival did not prepare me enough to face what New York had in store for me.