Quran

"I'm a smart kid. I know right from wrong."

By Students of NYC

January 26^th, 2024

"I’m a smart kid. I know right from wrong. My teachers also ask me for help with their tech problems. Their audio isn’t working, they come to me. I can always figure it out. Usually it’s a wire, or an output that needs to be switched. My mom, too. She does hair; she has her own business. So she gives me the phone and says, here, Quran, can you take care of this? I love making her long videos into something short for her TikTok channel. Her fingers are tired from working all day.

I’ve known my girlfriend since 6th grade. I treat her well. On Fridays, I walk her home from school. We pick up her siblings and drop them off, and I go home after that. She treats me the same. She does my hair for free. She’s really good, even my mom says that. We learn things through the relationship. We get better. Not worse. We don't argue or anything. I got her a butterfly necklace that's supposed to be coming. Not for her birthday or anything, just to get for her.

Me and my mom and my sister, we dance in the house sometimes. The other day, we were trying to learn the new TikTok dance to "Sensational" by Chris Brown. We were watching a tutorial by some guy who kept saying funny stuff and making us laugh. I think my mom did it best, but she says I did, because there was one move she couldn’t get. We were just hanging out, dancing and laughing. I know I’m lucky to have a family like that. That kind of environment where we just hang out and are happy. My home. Every day when I get home from school my mom gives me a hug and asks me, how was your day?

At last year's graduation, I was chosen to receive the flags from the graduating 8th-graders. They do that every year — the flag passing, you know, to make it official. To tell us it was our turn to take the lead. When those 8th-graders passed me the flag, it felt like they passed on to me all the good things that were coming — graduating, all of that. Like a reminder that I could succeed. It made me feel like a whole new person. Out of everyone, my school had chosen me. I think it’s just because of how I am."