Malik McKay

Tough Love

What you NEED to hear regardless of how you take it EMOTIONALLY will help you in the long run.

I’m a freshman at NCCU and pursuing a career in Accounting. I’m from Harlem, NY so I was taught differently. It wasn’t easy when I was growing since I had five sisters and one brother. the third youngest out of seven wasn’t good since I always got bullied by my older siblings. I’m not going to lie; I was really sensitive when I was younger that’s why I always got picked on. One of my sisters use to scare me with the Scream mask multiple times, the other two would tease and call me names and to make things worse, my brother even tricked me into a suitcase and threw me around the room while playing Hide N Seek. Lol It’s crazy I know. He was the oldest and a clown too, we use to call him Martin Lawrence Jr. he had jokes and insults for days, especially because I had a big head. Going through all of that I always thought they was doing it for fun (well the suitcase part was for fun) but they were actually teaching me a lesson. The lesson they were teaching me about was Tough Love. Being harsh is what I grew up on, basically telling somebody how it supposed to be and hitting them with reality instead of sugarcoating so you won’t get a negative reaction. I was taught how to be tough minded in any situation regarding a friend or family member. at any time, a person who felt bad or cared for another right then and there can cause them to be used or played. “Just be straightforward with that person”, My Pops would say. Being able to joke around with my brother and go at it was our way of caring and bonding with each other and eventually it grew to the rest of the family and that’s how we start Conversation, For real. When I moved to Rockingham, North Carolina; I brought my same ways with me and eventually turn my friends into Family because they adapted to the way I conversed (some of them took more time than others) and quickly had a comeback to majority of the jokes threw at them. The way I talk to a friend or family member compared to an associate or random person, you can tell who I was close to. You might say it’s an insult, mean or disrespectful but It’s my way of life and that’s how I get through it.