Born and raised in the heart of Compton I came up from nothing. They called me John Stone. I was rapping before I could even talk. From a young age everyone knew I had the chance to grow up and be something big. I had the chance to get off the streets and make a name for myself in the rap game. Every night I would work on my craft. My boys would call me every night making sure I was working at my game.

“You laying down a track tonight?” Ray asked.
As if the answer wasn’t an obvious one.
“Already on it man” I responded.
It was my whole entire life. I never once thought I’d want to do anything else with my life than rap. In my mind it was who I was meant to be. I never thought I needed to work on anything else. In school I wouldn’t pay attention at all. When I was younger my mom made me go and I would just sleep all day. Once I got older she got on me to stay awake so I started skipping school. I had no time for school in my mind it was pointless. Then my mom got fed up.
“John if you miss one more damn day of school I swear to God” my mom said.
I could feel the anger in her voice. My mom was the only person on this earth that really scared me. She could put the fear of God in me at any moment.
“Mama I don’t need school, it’s a distraction we all know what I’m gonna be” I responded.
“I’m a rapper I aint never gonna need school in my life” I said.
After I said that I’ve never seen my mom get angrier in my entire life. She just looked at me for the longest time until she finally spoke.
“I don’t care what you think you are gonna be, you’re gonna take your ass to school every damn day until you’re out of my house” my mom said.
I lowered my head and nodded softly knowing putting up any more of a fight would be useless.
Going to school every single day was a drag. I signed up for the easiest classes possible. Except for one class I could not get out of taking, statistics. I walked into the class with every intention of taking my second, maybe third nap of the day, but my teacher immediately had a warm up problem on the board for the entire class to do. It was a simple problem to say the least. I decided I would give it a try before my nap. I got it pretty quick and as we went over it in class I got a little excited that I had gotten the problem correct. I had never paid enough attention to see whether I got a problem right or not but now that I had I was quickly hooked. The rest of the class I actually listened to what was being taught. With every word and problem we did in class I became more and more intrigued with the idea of math and statistics. I could feel a change happening in me.
Day after day I went into my stats class and every single day I walked out more and more in love with it. I started doing all of my homework as soon as I got home from school. instead of writing rhymes I would work out equations. I was acing every test or quiz that we took in class with ease. Before I knew it I had an A in the class and was by far the best student. Class time and homework began to not be enough to satisfy my new found math addiction. My life that was once consumed with the idea of rapping was now shifting to being run by math. My teacher noticed my growing passion for statistics and approached me with an idea that would change my life forever.
“John may I speak with you a moment after class ends?” he asked.
Not knowing what to expect I agreed. For a moment I thought maybe I didn’t do well on our most recent test but then I realized that wasn’t possible I never failed a test. The bell finally rang and I was eager to hear what he had to say.
“John have you ever thought of pursuing a career in accounting perhaps?” he asked?
“You are by far the best math student I have ever had and I think you would make a very successful accountant if you worked at it,” he said.
Shocked by what he said I was surely not expecting to hear that come out of his mouth. Although the thought of it excited me I was worried that my friends wouldn’t approve of me giving up on my rap career to punch numbers the rest of my life. The desire however was just to much to overcome.
“That’d be real nice man,” I said.
“I never thought I could do something like this, but hell if you think I can do it then imma try it,”  I said.
We kept discussing what I needed to do to prepare for a career as an accountant. The more I heard him talk about it the more I wanted to become one. All I had left to do was convince my friends to accept the new path I chose to go down. I knew it would be tough for them to understand the change.
I called up all my boys and asked them to come over. Once they all got to my house I slowly eased into the topic. My heart was racing not knowing how they would respond. I thought they would toss me to the curb when they heard what I had to say. I worked up the courage and finally was ready to break the news.
“Boys I’ve gotta tell yall something, im not tryna be a rapper no more, I wanna be an accountant,” I said
Eyes got wide and a few jaws dropped.
“You kidding right Stone? You the best rapper out there and you wanna give that up for math?” one friend asked.
Along with a million other questions from all of my other friends as the shock had no yet set in for most of them.
“I love rap don’t get me wrong, but math is my one true love, its all I wanna do with my life homies,” I said.
“Ive never been happier then when im doing math, its what I wanna do, I wanna be an accountant more that anything.
The looks on their faces began to return to normal. As we talked more they began to understand and support my decision. Everything was working out the way I wanted. My friends were on board with my accounting career. By the end of the night I was even teaching them all math. I was finally able to do what I loved with no pressure to be anything else then who I was.