Rasheed Benito

My name is Richard — but not as rich as you think I am. Figuratively I may be but literally I am not and never have I been. I may be rich in my own exceptional approach. What possession I may be proud of except my very own interesting DNA structure? For this man was only nurtured from a poor family, deprived of all the assets and liabilities that most men have luxuriated with. But with the inexistence of such, I derived my substance. And the substance I become, I derived my form. For it has always been my conviction to be poor but ascending rather than rich but retreating. As a poor man, I have burdened myriad torments to conquer and in the long run gave me more lessons to learn and live. Now as I am persisting to soar greater heights, I have acquired so far that we are rich the way we make it ourselves; not with how innumerable material things we have but with how countless people counting on us at times they cannot look for someone to inspire then when they needed most. My name is Richard — but not as hard as you think I am. Words easily bruise me. Actions easily hurt me. I tend to be so emotional on simple occurrences. But long time have I been trying to be as strong as a bamboo tree which dances salsa when the wind gets mad, jive when the clouds get violent and cha-cha when the two of them collide and fight. Words and actions may have devastated me in some ways yet bit by bit I have learned to convert them into motivating stimuli, catalyst for faster metamorphosis from a weak caterpillar into a free from bondage, law-abiding and inspiring butterfly. Let it be known to the four corners of the earth that my name is Richard: the man, maybe the one and only, who is figuratively rich but not hard to reach.