“My daily motivation is to get up and be better than I was yesterday. I see things in my life that’s slowly starting to build up and the more I work for it, the better it gets. There’s slow times, there’s times when I don’t grow but there’s times that I do grow. It gives me motivation to get up out of the bed and try. If there wasn’t any results, people wouldn’t be getting out of the bed and keep doing the same thing.

The challenges with growing is myself, which is the biggest obstacle. People get stuck in their own ways and what’s going on. We do that instead of just living life for what it is because you only got one. People just focus on the little things. Sometimes I focus on the small things that don’t matter and letting it get in my way. 

Just live. Take your life for what it is and don’t try to make your life someone else’s. Don’t try to be someone else, be you. Wake up and be happy for what you got and live your life because that the only way you’re going to be happy. 

The West End could use some community work and have people come together and clean up a little bit and make it look more presentable and friendly. A lot of people will look past that stuff. People will even look passed somebody sitting on the side of the road. Maybe more people should be a little bit more compassionate or try to. Then we can come together and clean up and try to make everything look nice and hold pride in the neighborhood.” - Mark, Russell