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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: WILD (11/16/17)
Sometimes children have a friend who grows up to become a famous rapper.

They drifted apart in their teens. Carried along different currents of circumstances, but now view his music videos on YouTube and read about his upcoming concerts on Twitter. Everyone in the music industry is watching this creative, talented, and depressed young man rise in the charts. We watch him tattoo his face and body with words, and can only guess why. It began with a black teardrop on his cheek.

He sings about drug addiction and depression and suicide. Is this real? Did the lure of fame and the pressure of pleasing fans cause his reckless lifestyle or did living a reckless lifestyle attract fame and fans thirsty for watching someone destroy his life? Did living in front of a camera only draw attention to his wild life?

Videos allow a glimpse into his surreal world; we can almost smell the smoke filled room, where he pops pills, clouding the pain of reality. We don’t know the degree of sensationalism displayed.

Did layers of worldly sediment pile up over the years? And harden his heart to a rock formation incapable of letting love heal the pain? Why did he choose drugs to numb the heartache?

His death was public, discovered by scrolling the news, or reading the newspaper.
When a friend becomes a famous rapper and overdoses, the world mourns his loss, his innovative music, his visual presence. Family and friends mourn the boy they knew under the ink. He is still the ten-year-old we cheered for when he hit a home-run; the same boy jumping waves with my kids in the Atlantic Ocean. He is the preteen who, like my boys, covered his athletic sweaty body with Acts deodorant spray, choking anyone near with the iced musk scent. He is the boy making silly faces to hear my baby daughter giggle thirteen years ago. He has the same smile in some of his candid shots. We miss his goofy laugh.

How did the people closest to his current lifestyle watch and not answer his cries for help? Or were they all spiraling in the same tornado, sharing drugs and depression? A pedestal was built for the world to pay to view his extremism. Was he just money to them? A story? He was a life worth saving…a child Christ died for, who never found hope in salvation.

Could we have changed his direction years ago? Did we miss an opportunity to share God’s love? When the world’s love abandoned him and pierced his heart, he could have found comfort in Christ’s eternal love.

We could celebrate his accomplishments, achieved at such a young age, but why? He reached for his dream and gained the world, but he couldn’t take the world with him. He wouldn't have a chance to become a prodigal son.

Sometimes a child grows up to become a famous rapper, and his story ends.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Terry R A Eissfeldt 
11/27/17
Raw grief punctuates every question here. So sad.
Bonnie Bowden 
11/30/17
Congratulations on your 3rd place finish, Francy.

Unfortunately, this type of tragedy is all common in today's world and not just with rappers.
Maxx .
12/01/17
Congratulations on your EC selection!