Exclusive Ink

Category: Essays

  • NEW YORK

    by FERNANDO

    Well living in New York is really big for me because where I’m from music and dance are really big. You have people that can dance and sing, and that was one of the main things I did. I liked to sing and I like a lot of country music because it makes my feelings show. I remember when my Cuban friends and I were playing around throwing a football from a balcony from the top floor down to the street. One time we hit a car, and the man got out and we thought he was going to kill us. But we just ended up getting a lesson from our parents. It was kind of funny. We didn’t have many toys so the street was our playground. The way people dress is so common like you don’t have to go outside and dress to impress. You can go outside with shorts and a sleeveless shirt and not get judged. The people there are nice – most of them. There are a lot of cubanos, brasileños, venezolanos y de hondureños. Y, a veces, the Bronx is so relaxing.

  • HOW TO RULE

    by BRANDON

    Although the sword can instill fear in any man or child, the pen can make the strongest nation tremble and cower. Like an infant fresh out of a mother’s womb. What that means is just because you dictate with an iron fist, your actions you have are full of bliss, and just because you raise your hand, all may not tremble with fear. Sketching your thoughts to reach further than a redwood, deliver words that trickle throughout the stream of your blood and embed themselves in your heart. As a leader, as an elder, you have the obligation to rule as I am. Generous, kind, loving, instead of being a brute or a tyrant that causes as much destruction inside of his own state haven as opposed to oppressing the oppressors of the ones you love most.

  • VIDEO GAMES

    by BRANDON B.

    My family generally doesn’t get along too well. What has been there to hold us all together? The black sheep of modern time the one thing that everyone always point their finger at: video games. Video games have been there for me my entire life through good times and bad times. Video games give me that fresh out the shower feeling once I beat them. I’ve even learned a thing or two from them as well as life long lessons it takes many to grasp.

    In Street Fighter I’ve learned heavy punches and light kicks can make anyone subdue to your needs regardless of their stature, and when they lose the fight they are great sports. Astal taught me that allies come and many different shapes and sizes and size means nothing at all — it’s the heart that the person carries that measures their strength. Streets of Rage taught me that love for your friends and your home will put you through some crazy s— just to restore the proper balance at any means necessary.

    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters had doppelgängers in it — at first I didn’t get why they had them on there, but then I realized your worst enemy that you would never expect will forever and always will be yourself and to overcome yourself is to admit and know your flaws. Super Mario 64 will make you happy like your first paycheck from your first job, but then p— you off when you see the taxes taken out. You have to go knee-deep in this 3D world full of inconveniences that you must conquer, much like your everyday life but with fruity raptors and fire-breathing turtles. At the end of the day, you keep playing the game. Why? Because your determination for that game or anything hard doesn’t come easy.

    Marvel Vs. Capcom taught me the enemy of my enemy is my friend — two different heroes and villains come together in a covenant to take down an ominous evil power. If they can come together with your greatest enemy for a better cause, I know I can too. Shadow The Hedgehog taught me that, yeah, you can have a messed up past, but that doesn’t determine who you will be in the future, and that doesn’t assure you’ll be good either. You have choices along the way to being greatest and also to the Hall of Infamy.

    And lastly, but not at all least important, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 taught me that what you do now affects anyone and everyone. Ever hear, “your past will haunt you” or “the truth will eventually come to light and shine brighter than it should”? All of that can be avoided if you watch how you do and say things. So all these things were taught to me by video games, and the crazy part about this is that these video games never come out and say any of these things — it’s what every gamer receives when these games are played.