I’m reading Gang Leader for a Day for my sociology. It’s actually very good; it makes you think of things in a way that’s different from whatever you might have assumed. It reminds you that there are two sides to every story. I mean, the guy really does have literary merit. He knows how to persuade and to tell a really good story. I want to keep reading.

However, it reminded me of my reading from over winter break. I decided to read “Love in the Present Tense,” which is about the different kinds of love in this kid Leonard’s life. He has so many people around him who love him and his life sucks. His mother left him and he lives with his adoptive parents but the guy who took care of him after his mom abandoned him can’t be his legal guardian. Anyway, the lives of the people around him suck, and he keeps bringing light to their lives. Meanwhile, he never sees how influential he is in bringing happiness to them until he leaves.

So, how are these two connected?

Leonard lived in the projects, his mom was a prostitute who had him when she was like, 13 or 14. And she was into drugs and things, and his dad was a police officer who raped her. So he didn’t come from this glamorous family.

It just reminds me of these people in Gang Leader for a Day because this book puts a new perspective on everything. It makes you pity the people less and respect them more. It makes you see them as people, not as the nameless entity that is “homeless” or “poor”.

Maybe it’s just me.

But that scares me the most because it shows we are all people in the end. In the end, it doesn’t make a difference whether or not you had the most or the least, it matters if you made a difference to people’s lives. If you helped them.

So that, my friends, is why I’m always smiling.