TJ Bendell-Scoggins
Mrs. Waugh
Pre-AP English II IBMYP
25 September 2012
1,264 words
Paving a Road
"A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness" (19).

Once upon a time, a young fellow by the name of Cyrus roamed the streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Cyrus was a typical Caucasian fourteen year old, except for the fact that he had no parents, was homeless, and had no money. To make matters worse, he had not attended a single day of school. The young man was always faced with comments such as, “poor boy” and “what kind of parents would leave their son like this?” This hurt the young boy deeply because of the fact that his parents had died when he was at the age of 10 from a car accident. His parents had never really mentioned relatives. Even if they did, he would have been too young to remember. Cyrus’s worst enemy was the many instances where he was faced with drugs and other struggles he faced often.
Although Cyrus was faced with challenges each day, he overcame them with amazing resilience. His two friends Jacobus and Reginald, who were both African American, knew him as a hard worker who wanted nothing handed to him for free. Despite not being offered an education, Cyrus had a hunger for knowledge. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he went to the public library to absorb any sort of education he could get; he excelled particularly in Math and English. Even though the young boy was constantly reading textbooks, his biggest source of knowledge was from the older adults who seemed to know everything. Cyrus nodded in agreement to anything these wise people said, took. He was highly respected amongst the elders in this way.
One day, Cyrus met up with his good friends, Jacobus and Reginald, at a local park just next to the all mighty Booker T. Washington high school. When Cyrus came within sight of Jacobus, Jacobus immediately yelled, “What up Cyrus”? Cyrus, without hesitation, said “Not much bro just chillin.” The same thing happened with Reginald. After the boys had discussed their days, Reginald suddenly proposed an idea for his friends. He proposed, “How about we all get jobs?” This thought had never crossed the mind of Cyrus, but he was very intrigued by the idea. Without hesitation, Cyrus responded, “That would be pretty chill, but who would hire us?” Jacobus chimed in, “I think people would hire us. Lets just apply at a couple of places and if it’s not meant to be, then it is not meant to be.” Each boy nodded in agreement.
With this, the boys ventured out all around Tulsa thinking of places to apply. Since the boys were only fifteen years of age, they could only apply at Reasor’s, a car wash, or a new gas station by the name of There and Back. There and Back was a corporation just recently made by many older men wanting to start something for their children to inherit. Nearly a month passed when the boys finally got a response from Reasor’s: None of the three boys had gotten the job. Disappointed but not completely out of hope, Cyrus contested, “We just need to keep our heads up; we will get it.” Next came the response from the car wash, Reginald and Jacobus had gotten the job and would finally start earning an income. Cyrus, on the other hand, was not as fortunate. Reginald sympathized and noted, “If you want, I will refuse this job until we figure out if you got the job at the gas station.” Being extremely selfless, Cyrus remarked, “Please accept the job, it is what you wanted.” Jacobus and Reginald accepted the job.
Cyrus grieved for weeks over the fact that his friends had received a job before him: the most probably cause was the fact that his friends attended school. Little did the employers know, Cyrus had a work ethic that could blow away both Reginald and Jacobus. For weeks on end Cyrus waited, and waited, and waited. He prayed, “Please lord, I need this so bad”. Finally after nearly a month of heartache and pent up stress the, Cyrus received the news that he had gotten the