“Success to me is whatever you deem successful to yourself.”
I knew that I wanted to be an actor. I never told anybody because you just don’t talk about that kind of dream in Detroit. You don’t talk about those far-fetched things. You’re going to work for Ford, Chrysler, or GM. That was the dream in Detroit. But my mom always sent me out. I did a lot of traveling. So I got to witness firsthand what was outside of Detroit and there is where my dream started. It really started with my mom actually. Just knowing that I could do things I never seen in Detroit was one of the things that motivated me to leave Detroit and to do the things that I’m trying to do now, which is become a successful actor. It’s not about fame. It’s success. Success to me is whatever you deem successful to yourself.
When I was little I had a stuffed animal. It was a little puppy and I called him Blue. It had long ears and had a spot on its eye and I got it from my mom. She gave it to me from The Goodwill. I named it Blue because we lived in a house that was condemned, actually. I didn’t know it was condemned because there was a lot of love in this house, so much love in this house.
For some reason that puppy and me just connected. I just wanted it to sit on my bed every day. We would move in and out of this house but the dog would always stay at the house. In my heart I felt it was protecting the house. One year the house was so terrible we ended up sleeping in my bedroom. All four of us. And that dog was always there.
You know how on every application they ask you to fill out what is your pet’s name? I always say Blue. And I never had a real dog. Blue was a protector and so am I of my family. Sometimes I want to give up, I want to give up so bad but thinking about Blue…now I understand why I don’t give up, because he was my protector. He was my family’s protector and because he stayed in that house without a problem. I felt he could’ve ran away anytime but he never gave up on us. And that’s how I feel now.