There was once this guy that lived in my neighborhood named Bo-Bo (in Chicago there is a Bo-Bo or Nee-Nee in every neighborhood.)

Bo-Bo was known by everybody. It didn’t matter who you were, you knew Bo-Bo.

He wasn’t the neighborhood jock or the local brainiac (that was me). He wasn’t the new guy/girl from around the way he wasn’t even the local funnyman.

You see, Bo-Bo was a dope man. A drug dealer to the ghetto illiterate. He was small-time by some standards but big-time by others.

He caused a lot of people a lot of pain. He pissed many-a-person off and he spent many a day on the lam.

He had guns and cars and, sad to say, he was the envy of many a person in the neighborhood.

He had his crew of followers who would do whatever he asked. He had whatever woman he wanted, and bought what he wanted.

Strange as it sounds, and as stupid as you may think a person of this sort is Bo-Bo was smart.

You couldn’t hold an intelligent conversation about the war in Bosnia or nothing like that with him and he wasn’t about to win any kind of Nobel Prize for chemistry.

But when it came to his money and his business he was smart — smart enough to give some Japanese businessmen a run for their money.

He lasted a while on the streets before he was outsmarted by the law. But by then Bo-Bo had done damge and even managed to hold on to a little bit of the money he put away.

Bo-Bo was a fool to sell the poison that he sold. He was a fool to do the things that he did. But he was nobody’s fool when it came to the dollars.

I learned a lot from Bo-Bo. Yes, that’s what I said I learned from a drug dealer! I learned a great deal from that dope dealing punk.

I learned the way not to go. I learned that whatever you decide to do it will effect you in the future

Bo-Bo taught me that in this world if you want something you have to go out and get it. He wanted the cars and the women and the money. Sure I don’t agree with the man’s methods, but I can’t argue that he didn’t go out and take what he wanted.

After all isn’t that the American Way?

Despite Bo-Bo being a low-life drug dealer there are many things that we had in common. We both liked money and we both wanted to succeed.

He achieved success although it was short-lived, yet still I learned from him. I realized that I have a large future ahead of me and my success would be to not waste it. I realized that there were many people out there who would try and pull you down and just as many who would help to pull you up.

I watched Bo-Bo for quite some time, and I found myself falling into the mystique of the game he was playing. But what is probably the most important thing I learned from this guy was — happiness.

He was the most unhappiest man in the world.

Imagine always having to watch your back and watch your front. always carrying a gun and being frightened at every little noise.

I learned that is not the way to live. Living knowing that I might not make it is not the way.

I used many of the things that Bo-Bo unknowingly taught me to achieve many of the things that have to this day.

We all have a person or persons who teach us something. It could be the neighborhood drug dealer, our parents, our friends, or even our role models.

No matter who you are and what walk of life you are from, life is the same in the sense of the lessons that we learn. No, I’m not saying that we all learn the same lessons; however, we all do have experiences that help us to learn from these experiences.

Maybe it is watching “Star Wars”, listening to Wu-Tang Clan, or going to church.

Nobody decides the lessons that they learn and no one can decide when they learn those lessons.

Bo-Bo isn’t the only one who has taught me lessons.

He isn’t the first whom I learned from and sure won’t be the last. Yet, he has taught me some of the lessons that I will never forget.

I have learned to enjoy life not fear it, to embrace its suprises not run from them, and to adjust to her hardships not let them overcome me.

I have learned that many of the actions I make or instances I indulge myself in do not just affect me.

I have learned that I am not always the only consequence.

You see, life is what you make of it. Your life is clearly and completely your own.

But the lessons we learn from others can direct our lives in many different directions.

What direction are you headed?

Is it the true direction for you? Only you know for sure.

Can you change directions? Only if you want to.

Will you always have all the answers? Hell no, no way and no how.

There is no way to compare one life to another, for every one is different. Do what you gotta do, but always do what is right.

C-ya next week. I gots to jet.

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Rhaason Mitchell is a senior in journalism and mass communications from Chicago. He is the opinion editor for the Daily.