I’m not going to explain why this specific president was used as the cover image. I also don’t make it very obvious throughout my writing.

You might put it together if you think hard enough, do a little searching, and utilize context clues.

It’s a riddle folding you like a fiddle.

Have fun!

“Nobody never told you that?
You can be the president of the United States.”

— Stephon Marbury

That gives me peacock bumps every time.

My second-grade teacher, Mrs. Rosario, told me the same thing while I had nothing but boogers in my mouth to show for it.

It wasn’t word for word, but the same skeleton.

You know the famous question adults ask children when they have no real concept of the world yet?

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

That’s what Mrs. Rosario asked me, many times. I told her the most brilliant career a second grader could conjure, “I want to be an ice cream man — so I could eat all the ice cream.” Some days, depending on how Dominican I felt, I’d tell her, “I’m going to be a baseball player.”

Her response was always in the nature of, “That sounds like a fun job, but I think you should run for president one day.”

As a child, I might’ve taken those words for granted. As an adult, my eyes get watery thinking back on it.

A Stereotypical Hood Elementary School

That’s where I went.

With a bunch of troubled kids from broken project apartments. Even if you search them up now it says 99.5% of the students are economically disadvantaged.

In my time, at least three fights happened every day. Kids would stab each other up — yes, in elementary — with scissors, pens, or (if your parents had some extra food stamps) the Heelys plug-remover tool. That was a regular day in class.

I never thought much about it at the time. I always thought this social environment was normal, ’til I got older and reflected.

Many of the teachers who taught at this school came from out of state, didn’t know much about the neighborhood, and most likely accepted a job in Lower Manhattan they couldn’t believe was available… until they actually started working there.

Somehow, Mrs. Rosario saw this tiny kid — timid, to himself, statistically likely to become a non-productive member of society, and thought he could lead the most powerful country in the free world.

I don’t know what she saw in me, but I know it was genuine.

She used to tell the whole class things like, “I don’t have any favorites, but Justin is the COOOLEST kid in this class.” Always emphasis on “COOOLEST“.

Pretty hilarious when I think about it now. But she said this often. Especially when everyone was acting up and I was calm, Cool-Hand-Luke-ing in the midst of the chaos.

That remark would hit a little harder on days I had sunglasses in my pocket too. I’d throw them on and let everyone know who was big dawg.

My mom even noticed it. She used to tell me I was Mrs. Rosario’s favorite.

There were many uplifting remarks throughout my second-grade year, but “you should be president” is one that stayed etched in my mind.

I never once considered a career in politics. But the power behind that statement implanted enough belief in me to see a life beyond the neighborhood around me — the one many of my peers succumbed to. A life beyond the corner-store hangouts, beyond the front-lobby stoops, beyond drugs and violence.

“You could be president” pulled away illusory, pessimistic, brick curtains the hood generationally enslaves us with.

I don’t know if Mrs. Rosario ever knew the power her words held. They got a stronghold of me before the inevitable ‘learned helplessness’ of my environment did.

I’ve tried searching for her online over the years to reconnect. I’d love to sit down with her, tell her how my life turned out, and let her know the impact she has had on me.

This is a long shot, but if anyone knows Bridgette Rosario who taught second grade at the school I didn’t mention in this article, I’d love to reconnect!

Knowing The Profound Impact

Knowing the profound impact a simple sentence can have makes Marbury’s words hit much harder. Because I know what those words can do.

In the hood, there are three career options: sports, rapping, or drugs.

It’s promoted everywhere we look. 

“You either spit it raw, or sell crack and dribble the ball.”

— Meek Mill

That kid Marbury spoke to is growing up in Coney Island, the last stop on the yellow line. One of the higher-crime areas, where opportunity isn’t visually or immediately available beyond what’s pushed in front of you.

Stephon telling him he can be president might be the only time he hears something like that for decades.

For me, after second grade, uplifting and optimistic remarks were far and few.

Words Nurture Before Nature, Natures

Words like that, spoken to a kid young enough, before the world subjugates them, might be enough to keep them pushing forward, even when there’s no visible path to do something different from “the norm”.

Words like that can give a kid confidence.

Faithful endurance to persevere in spite of what seems like predestined “hood prophecy”.

Words like that just might create the next president of the United States.

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The way expectations, especially when spoken early, can influence how someone comes to see themselves is a dynamic recognized in psychology as the Pygmalion effect.