My grade school friend Steven Lee was innocently killed in 2010 while walking to his car. My best high school buddy Ronald Hollister was killed in 1993. He was an honor college student home on summer break. And even my own father, Ezekiel Taylor was robbed and killed on 79th and Stony Island…mere blocks from where First Lady Michelle Obama grew up. I was only five years old at the time. Again, this solidifies the reason why I refuse to move back to the “Windy City.”

My family and friends ask me all of the time, “When are you moving back to Chicago?” I have told them, I have no desire to subject myself or my son to the violence that has crippled this city. Every time my son goes out to play or we walk to the park while visiting, I live in fear.