PERSONAL PREVIEW - (up to Ch. 4 from my book)

PERSONAL PREVIEW - up to Ch. 4

For all my friends and fans through this process,
Since that I been informing you on my book alot lately I figured it would be okay if I gave to you a preview of my book, I hope that it could inspire you to go and purchase a copy of it on the website www.lulu.com and search Colby Finkley, but for now here you are so that you could go ahead and start reading whenever you have a chance that is, MY PERSONAL PREVIEW:
Pursuit Of A Passion
Colby Glenn

Summary:
I been thinking about what in my life I want to talk about, what thoughts I would like to share with the world. Well here’s another summary about my life and what I believe in:
In my life there has been lots of drama, to help I try to compare with peoples I believe I relate to. My family I compare to the Jacksons; you know Janet, Micheal….etc. Recently I have been trying to focus in on movies like Antwon Fisher (we both been to the military), and other movies such as Pursuit of Happyness, and Freedom Writers. I figure that these could help me thru this as I maintain to follow my dream as well as stay strong.
I believe in things like the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I have faith in God and believe that one day this world really would change. I’ve given myself lots of positive role models, heroes, and inspirations. I also believe that one day in pursuit of my passion, I Colby Glenn will convert back, my redemption will shine and at the same time for a young black male in this world justice will prevail. As I keep looking for that opportunity to one day make it all happen my dreams will come true.
With writing it has freed my mind and has really focused me up to this world. It’s been a break from adversity, distress, and my glance at a chance to escape poverty. It feels a lot better just writing about it and to have a dream at the same time I feel like I can one day begin a legacy a legacy of great purposes as I today decide to strive to live up to all my potentials.
One thing about the ghetto it’s where I will be coming from, I feel it’s necessary to speak about a change. So than if things ever change for me than why not give encouragement so that the whole world could one day be that better place? Like I’ve already mentioned yes I do believe and support the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has once cast. As well I believe that I can achieve all that I would like to accomplish. This is a book about my life, my story, my journey along with all my thoughts and beliefs. This is a guy, myself I Colby Glenn who is a believer, a believer that dreams come true.
Chapter 1: Introduction (my journal)


Now as I immediately jump right into my story, really what should I write about? Should I have brainstormed first? Or should I just brainstorm as I go along? I guess for now I can talk about my journal.
I just got thru writing a real thick journal that I’ve named Thuglife And Everything I’ve developed Into. In this journal includes all my plans and goals that I await to accomplish along with my plans for redemption something I believe we all should ask for, the advice I received ask for it on a daily basis. In my journal I’ve loaded it with lots of facts about my life and what I feel about life in general. I also in which I believe has really focused me up in my attempts to maintain have included a set of some of my favorite poems I written that I named or call 30 poems in 3 days.
In my poem book 30 poems in 3days I speak a lot about pride, class, and dignity some things I believe that can always be recycled. I give encouragement for friendship, unity, and just simply having a sense of humor. I am a strong believer in having a sense of humor and that it relieves much stress. In my journal I try to express a little. My journal to me is very very interesting. It’s full of all of my thoughts and beliefs. I believe that I have interesting thoughts unique sometimes but still interesting.
I truly believe in things like finding peace one day, having unity, and believing and achieving so that we all can overcome. These are what my journal is loaded with, these are things I love to write and talk about; from poems, to music lyrics, and just simply writing. And that right yeah I did mention music lyrics. Although rapping isn’t one of my biggest dreams I did one time say that if I do rap I would like to rap in a style like Will Smith or even Nelly maybe LL Cool J, even Kanye West style wouldn’t be a bad style for a keeping it cool, laid back type of dude like myself, but all that’s besides the point for right now be cause for now I have to focus on this my first project. Plus I’ve already talked about all that in journal of course.
Throughout the course of this I may dip into my journal and 30 poems and 3days. I may even share some of my poetry or perhaps I might take breaks to write some poems and/or brainstorm of course, but I promise not to take too too long with this. I have already taken nearly a year to prepare and plan for this by writing my journal-Thuglife And Everything I’ve Developed Into. Now I’m nearly, well I take that back I guess I can say that I am ready for this. I feel a lot of confident in what I talk about these days, I guess I can say that I feel confident enough to get you all thru this. The main thing is keeping my flow, but don’t worry because I do have confident enough to know that I will get this done. I’ll make it my obligation, something that I am dedicated to. I might just express a little of my sense of humor write in this just to keep you (the reader) interested. I don’t know because I do want this to be full of facts about my life and serious points that I can make about life in general. Just like my journal I would also like to give advice. Oh and before I end this introduction let me not forget to mention that I as well have another hobby that goes along with writing. Something I started for a friend. After my journal and right before I got into this I have began writing R&B music. I’ve always been a fan of R&B music but I’ll talk more about that later. For now welcome to Pursuit Of A Passion Colby Glenn.



























Chapter 2: born and raised

Please do allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Colby Glenn Finkley and I was born out of Abbeville General Hospital in Abbeville, LA. My father name is Clarence Ellis and my mother name is Stephanie Finkley. I have and older sister (Doranda Finkley) and I have a younger brother (L’Marques Finkley) that my father and mother once shared. All together I have a total of six brothers and sisters including myself. I remember very little about Abbeville, being that my father and mother separated while I was just a child. I’m 24 years of age as of today and I was only 5 when my father decided to leave Abbeville, leaving behind my mother and one of my brothers, an older brother LaDerrick Finkley.
As a child I can’t say that I understood everything but at a very young age I did understand that drama has played a major role in my life. Speaking in my whole families behalf I may say that drama has played a major role in all of our lives. So with that said do to drama being so many of the reasons I may say that it’s the reason or cause that our family couldn’t be together.
This is when my father decided to move up further north to Virginia in Richmond county on a road called Sharps Road. Sharps Road is where I met and was helped raised by my grandparents Deloris Shelton (grandmother) and James Shelton (grandfather). My father and grandparents are credited for raising Doranda, L’Marques, and I.
Sharps Road is also the place where we got to unite with the sons and daughters of my grandparents. For most of us we united all under one Roof. All together my father my grandparents had 17 kids. For me that’s one parent and 16 aunts and uncles, six boys and eleven girls. We also got to unite with there sons and daughters our cousins. And like I said for most of us we united under one roof. Uniting under one roof mean be together and live together. We were all raised up together.
Later on thru the years we all got to meet our brother Todd Kelly. I remember the excitement of meeting Todd. Everyone said that he favored me and my father the most. I met him probably at the age of 8 or 9. Occasionally we got to visit our brother; either that or he would come and visit us. I just remember it being exciting every single time. As of today we keep in touch. From time to time we all do.
Let me see it’s been nearly twelve years before I got to se my mother and older brother LaDerrick again. Other than that and pictures at a little later age I had no clue of what they looked like. I’m almost certain that it was around the time of Doranda’s graduation in 2000 when we got to meet face to face once again. As a matter of fact that was the time frame it was that summer. It was another exciting moment that my father allowed or agreed on. Either way he felt was old enough to have this experience. We were all grown and near grown. I had to be what 17, Randy (Doranda’s nickname) 18, and Marques (L’marques’ nickname) 16. All of us a little more up in age. I had two more years left in school, Marques three. Randy had just got thru packing she getting ready to leave for school in August to attend Virginia State a University that Marques later on attended and presently awaits to graduated this winter, month December.
We are very close especially our birthdates that run close together. This was for all of our brothers and sisters, we were all born a year apart. My birthday is April 29, 1983 next year 2008 I’ll be 25 and well alive, randy was born April 13, 1982 next year she’ll be turning 26. We are all a year apart I told you that is with the exception of Marques and Todd who are only months apart and both are a year under me. This year they will be 23 Marques comes first on August 26 and Todd next on September 14th. They were both born in the year 1984. LaDerrick is 26 I believe a year older than Doranda. I told you we all are a year apart. Although being born only a year apart due to drama Randy, Marques, and I haven’t mentioned or you haven’t figure out that we were the there who came up together and something that I’m positive that I’ve mentioned is we were raised in Virginia, in Richmond county with others around such as aunts, uncles, and cousins who all grew up before and with us down Sharps. Sharps is where we all grew up.
















Chapter 3-remembering and describing conditions from Sharps Road

From growing up down Sharps I have a lot of memories some good and some bad. I remember how packed it was in one little four bedroom trailor. My grandparents, father, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister, and brother. We all grew up under the same roof. At nights clearly I can focus in on how it use to be trying to find a place where we can rest our heads. The bedrooms, where packed, living rooms, floors, beds, couches, everywhere in the house we had to find some place to sleep.
Our house wasn’t always in the best conditions but however it was our home. We took care of it the best we could. From catching leaking water from the ceiling into buckets to flush toilets, to having to go next door back and forth to the neighbors’ fetching there water in order to have water to drink and cook with. I have to admit that sometimes this could be frustrating, but all at the same time this was something that we all had to do to survive. Living the way we came up yes times could get very frustrating. All of the parents were all very hard workers. I remember my grandmothers crab bus we all use to run to as she arrived home from a hard days of work, I remember my father coming through the door sweating from a hard days work of construction, knowing that he had to provide for his family. I do believe it was my grandparents who paid the bills the most, and shopped for groceries as well and my father helped provide groceries for the house. I remember us enjoying and appreciating every meal that my grandmother cooked (yes grandma did the cooking). I knew that a hurting stomach at night didn’t feel good at all. So it was best that we all be thankful that thru the grace of God we were able to be fed whenever we had food in our mouths.
About life I have a religious aspect or prospective since my grandmother keep me, Randy, and Marques in church at an early age. We were brought up in the church which was supported by both of our grandparents, encouraged by our father. We couldn’t say that we didn’t want to go to church. As a matter of fact I don’t believe that neither of us wanted to. To me church was a great place to go and hear about God and Jesus themselves. As well we got to learn about life, how precious it really is and how we can always keep hope and prayer. I remember kneeling at my bedside praying the prayer “now I lay me down to sleep…” with on both sides of me Randy and Marques. ‘I was the middle child…’ We loved to pray together and some times on our own. We ask one another “did you pray yet…” the reply was usually ‘yes’ and than we would tell each other ‘good night’. Praying before sleep was our thing it comforted us. I even remember wishing upon a shooting star and all. I would start “dear God I wish…” What can I say? Coming up down sharps we always had the less, less that the peoples that were right in the same house as us. I would probably wish for things that I seen my friends and cousins already had. You know seeing that that’s what made them so happy at times I figured it may work for me. I don’t recall ever crying for certain things just either wish for or pray for. Just maybe to dress like the people we associated with.
The school we started was named Richmond County Elementary located in Richmond County. Marques were in preschool, Randy was in 2nd grade, and I was in kindergarten. I would say that regards of the fact of not dressing like the other kids I still made friends fast. School was fun I have to say that besides going to church this is where I first learned to use my imagination. I’m not sure how studious I was, but I was very much a peoples’ person, probably not being as fortunate as others I still remained a wonderful personality that stuck out. Some students and teachers knew me personally and some of my situations. Although I wasn’t the only student who happened to be less fortunate; yeah I guess it was my personality that helped me along than and that still do help me along now. I would say that I am still a peoples’ person. I guess I owe that all to Sharps Road.
Out of all my memories I would say that my good ones have out weighed the bad ones. With whatever we had we learned to have fun with it. From cookouts to parties, sometimes we had smooth gatherings. But however speaking of making the best out of things our first basketball goal was made out of a crab basket. We got to joke about things like this because we had loads of fun. As kids we were very adventurous; that would be the advantage of being born in the country parts of the world. We got to make paths through the woods and build tree houses. I’m talking about loads of fun. This is what I try to focus on, these are the things that make me smile (I’m smiling now). Really this is what we did to free ourselves, to free our minds. Who else could have thought of things as such as putting a crab basket on a light poll and using volleyballs to play a game of basketball? Someone who didn’t have it of course, but than of course that wasn’t going to stop us not even to think about not one time.
While I’m writing about all our great moments and making the best, when it was television watching time after being outdoors all day, which was usually around 8 or 9. It was time to turn the antenna until we got a clear picture on our screen. Just in time to catch some of every ones favorite sitcoms. Here comes Steve Urkle (family matters), Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air), and so on and so on. This is when the house was full of laughter and joy tears. We loved these shows all thru the week especially when T.G.I.F. (Thank God It’s Friday) rolled around.
This is when we could sit there for hours spending our whole Friday evening and night just glued in front of the television. So thank God for T.G.I.F!!! These peoples were all of our heroes.
These are the things we got to do; the people we got to admire and look up to. The conditions weren’t always the best, but we all were making it happen the way we were. Memories from down Sharps Road, although they were the past they stay fresh leaving the good over top the bad.






























Chapter 4- privileges down Sharps

Unlike the other kids around us; we had very few privileges. My father was strict and was a very serious man, what he says goes and that was it. I have recollected thoughts of friends talking about weekend activities such as the movies and similar events. Right in front of me my cousins got to have video games like Nintendo’s and segas, but not us. As far as that goes we had very little time with such.
When we finally did get to go places, we had fun with fellow church members enjoying activities like skating and parks, the things that we got to do around revival time; we would paint draw pictures, pictures of what we thought Jesus looked like and all. We also got to act out little plays, read scriptures, and say prayers you know and other things in that nature. These were activities that we really enjoyed and they were really a privilege, church was and still is a privilege.
Once we got older and in our tears. We began to gain a little more freedom foe as privileges to go out. This is once I had a job and license. We earned privileges to participate in school dances, movies, and thing like that. There wasn’t always a curfew we just knew to be in at a descent time. Concerning the event; school dance, we would be in by 12 noon. My father wasn’t strict about that; he knew we weren’t going to be into anything we had no business in.
Being a parent I understood that you have to allow and disallow your children of certain privileges. It’s only discipline. Discipline to prevent most things that teens get into, the smoking, the drinking and driving, not alone to prevent doing any of it. My father was confident of his discipline he displayed, and we obeyed. We got to learn a lot about obeying our parents every single Sunday. Church was a great privilege, and like I’ve heard numerous times “if I could have stayed up for that party last night that I could go to church.” Rise and shine missed not one Sunday. Thank God for Sundays as well.
Thru school we weren’t allowed to shop for school clothes in malls and other name brand stores. Before I knew what a mall was I had been 17 or 18 late teens. All the way up to the 10th grade it was when I believe I got my first pair of Nike’s; they were Jason Kidd’s to be exact. I must admit I felt good wearing them. So shout out to my firs pair of Nike’s of Jason Kidd. It was just different I should say. See I was use to shopping in payless and family Dollar. Bo’s Bo’s is what they called them back then. I felt good either I won’t lie. I mean with me it was always about character. This is one privilege I’ve always had; rather tucked in or expressed I always get to have that privilege just to be myself.
As a child we had this one privilege that we all enjoyed together. My father, me, my sister, and brother we became involved in little league sports around the ages of 8 and 9. My father coached my brothers’ team. I was always in older league. This was all sports football, basketball, and baseball.

...to be continued












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