So yesterday when I went to pick my sister up from high school a kid walked by me talking to his friend and told him “imma buy go and by these new Js (presumably Jordans), imma turn up”. Now those who aren familiar with street slang should know that the phrase “turn up” (turnt up = adjective) means to get drunk or high or both. It also means to go hard and let loose. I hope the kid meant the latter in the context of playing basketball. He was only thirteen-fourteenish but it made me think back to myself at his age and myself now. Back then sneakers, women, drugs, and alcohol were the last things on my mind. I seemed to be more fixated on getting the months Nintendo Power magazine before everyone in my class or whether or not my mother would finally get me a PS2 or a Game Cube or an Xbox or a Gameboy Advance or whether or not that girl in class with the apple bottom liked me just as much as I liked her.

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