“There will be days when you're forced to make decisions that affect the lives of everyone you love, choices that will change you forever. You reach an age where you realize that being a man isn't about respect or strength, it's about being aware of all the things you touch. Children face inward, wallow in their own selfish needs. Men face out, take action on the needs of others. I'm at that place boys. I'm staring one of those decisions in the face and it looks back at me with historical eyes and it calls me a coward, a killer, a fraud. It wants me to crack and run from the service of my fate like a broken boy. Today, I will not do that. Today, I will be the man my father tried to be. I will make you proud.”

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Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

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