Amazing Dreams: The Writing Experience of a Young African American Male

By Derrick L. Hall

“AMAZING DREAMS—A Writing Experience of a Young African-American Male” is a book about the changing life of a guy named Warren and several of his friends who go through life experiencing the challenges of moving from high school into adulthood as they enter into the college world, become students at a HBCU (Historical Black College and University), finding and dating women, seeking love, and having visions. The author throws you into the scene of how a voyage of true love transitions, the hardships of life and love through the eyes of an African American male, how the real world will make you or break you and finally making major life decisions.
Can a young man find Love and attempt to be a Playa too?
Warren tries to play the field on the local college campus with so many women and still find love with that special lady. Does he experience pain and lost or change and love? He is all set to be the best college student that he can be, but the love for the ladies keeps him going into all kinds of directions as the playa. With Annette, Diamond, Dionne, Maria, MarKetta, Tonya, Nailah, and Latoya (Lady Red) in and out of Warren’s life; one of these ladies finally captures his mind and heart as he finds the love he’s been seeking.
Enter Warren’s world and his experiences on the college campus of NSU—Norfolk State University as he tries to balance his studies and finding Love.
This book will keep you wanting to read more and more while capturing your full attention.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728321974

Derrick L. Hall

Derrick La’Mont Hall is a 45-year-old African American male who began his interest in writing books and stories as a child through expressions of love by writing love letters and poems for himself as well as his friends. Writing is one of his favorite things that he enjoys doing; no matter where he is or when a thought hits him. He shares his most personal and not so personal inner feelings with his readers without shying away from the truth. His goal in life is to be the most successful man in whatever he does and to return his achievement in life by giving back to various black communities. Derrick is also a single father to a young son who he motivates to be the best he can be and continues to live the Amazing Dream of success.

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Copyright © 2019 Derrick L. Hall. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/06/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2198-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2197-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019911324

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is

dedicated to my beloved grandmother, Annie Lee Brooks, who has supported me in all my aspirations and goals in life, teaching me the rights from the wrongs in the most valuable ways.

And to my dearest and loving mother, Georgia Marie (Brooks) Jones, whose sole purpose was to raise a strong black male son into a man as a single parent in the dual role of Mom and Dad.

The strength of these two women has kept me on the straight and narrow path, even at my lowest points. I love them so much. I pray each day that I am making them proud as I represent them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1   The Voyage of a True Love

Chapter 2   The Hardship of Life

Chapter 3   The First Year of College and the Real World

Chapter 4   First Summer Transition in College

Chapter 5   The Sweatbox Dance

Chapter 6   Changing Majors and Making Decisions

Chapter 7   Labor Day Weekend and the Battle of the Classic

Chapter 8   The Next Day

Chapter 9   Labor Day—the Big Cookout

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I must first give honor to You, my heavenly Father and God, thanking You for Your presence and Your promise to Your children so that we may be able to fulfill Your purpose. It is in your will and name that I successfully start and complete my first piece of work, this short story. Without You, none of this would have been possible. You are truly a wonderful and awesome God. I want to continue to thank You for all that you have done for me from day one, and blessing me to be who I am—even when I could not see the blessings you were raining down upon me. Thank you!

Where do I start? To my lovely and dearest mother, Georgia Marie (Brooks) Jones, who gave me life at the age of twenty-five years old. Although it was a rough road for you, as you raised my brother and me as a single parent, you kept the dream alive over so many years. You never stopped encouraging the dreams and aspirations I had in life. No matter how crazy some of them were, you never said they weren’t going to pan out (even when some of them didn’t). I can never ever repay you completely for all your love, time, and energy, but I will try my best to give you what a mother deserves.

To the late Mrs. Vivian Dianne Boone, what can I say except thanks for loving me and being a second mother to me? From the day we met, and you took me under your wing like the other son that you and Mr. Boone never had. You shared your love with me and gave me wisdom and knowledge like no other, even when at times, I wished you would please stop talking my ears off! I miss you so much and wish that God had kept you here with us much longer than he did. I know that you are looking down on me from heaven above. The encouragement and guidance you gave me all through high school and college is the reason I never gave up on writing my very first book—even to this day.

To Mr. Lawrence Stanley Boone Sr., words can’t express the thankfulness I have for you. You were and are that father figure I never had in my life when growing up. To this very day, you have shown me love and molded me into a fine, well-rounded man, even though I am not your flesh and blood. For the tough love you gave me at times, when I would come over to your house as a young boy growing into a man, and for the lessons of manhood that you continue to give me as I raise my own son from a little boy into the future man that he will become, I want to say thank you, and I love you.

To my brother Michael, man, through all the tough times of growing up poor and getting your hand-me-downs—I hated it. But as I look back on those days, I see it was all worth it because it strengthened our relationship as brothers over more than forty years. Even in the rough times of our fights and arguments, you always guided your little brother over the hills. When it became my time to help you over the mountain peaks we both had to climb, I was there to give you support and love. Thank you for being my big brother and, most importantly, my friend.

To my late great-grandmother (Big Mama), Mrs. Minnie Richey, how do I even express the love I have always had for you? Life is not the same without you being there for our family and me. You held down the title of Big Mama well—not to just me but to all of us. Thank you for the lessons you taught me and some of the ass whippings you gave me when I came to your house after school when I did not do right in class. Your love will never be forgotten, as we were like two peas in a pod. Knowing you were called home to be with the Lord in 1995, you instilled in me the values of life and the courage to be whatever I wanted to be in life. I love you and never will forget you. Crying!

To my late grandfather and road dog, Mr. Freddie L. Hall Sr., words can’t express the heartfelt loss of you as you entered the gates of God’s kingdom back in January 2011. You were not just my grandfather but my best friend. I want to thank you for all your love and all our talks as I grew up from boyhood to manhood. You were the key to my success when it came to the ladies in my past—and maybe the one, someday in my future. You inspired me to focus on my dreams and make them the focal point of success. You were one of my spiritual role models. You were and still are the epitome of strength. I will always love and admire you, and I still have talks with you today while looking at your picture. Although you’re not here in the flesh, I know you are here in the spirit. As you look down on me from heaven, I pray that I make you proud.

To all my past English teachers and writing teachers, I want to thank you for all that you have taught me about writing, as well as the pep talks and encouragements to be the best I can be.

To my friends, Stanley Norris, Octavious Bellamy, Lawrence Stanley Boone Jr., Jarrett Keyes, David Pharr, Glen and Shawn Yonkers, and Demetrius Alexander, what is success without someone you have been close with over so many years to share it with?

To my former pastor and great spiritual leader, Dr. James Henry Harris, you were there for me when I was a young boy trying to find my identity in this world. You baptized me back in 1978 as a small boy, and you changed my life even when the devil tried to tighten his grip on me. Thank you for keeping me in the church and staying on the straight and narrow path of righteousness. Also, thank you for teaching me to have faith in the word and believing I can, at times, step out on faith in my work, for work without faith is void.

And to all the people who I forgot to mention, know that it doesn’t diminish your place in my life. I know and was told I could not thank every single person. I will try to catch you in my next book.

To my newfound book family, this is the first of many. I hope you like it, and I look forward to the future with you as my readers. And check out my next book coming out soon, Visions of My Love.

Until next time, keep praying, keep loving and caring, keep aspiring toward your dreams, keep focused, keep being yourself, and lastly, keep believing in yourself.

—Derrick

INTRODUCTION

This book is the beginning of many writings that I have been working on for some time. I was inspired to write a book while attending high school and choosing what I wanted to do in the next five to ten years. It was hard to decide what to put into my first book, but I chose something I thought would be of great interest. When I was finishing high school, college was not on my mind. I really did not know whether to go on to a higher level of education or just enter the real world. Writing is something that I have always wanted to do, but I had to master the craft first.

I sit here wondering if I will ever be successful in what I do best in life, which is expressions through writing. Writing is one of my favorite things to do. No matter where I am, when a thought hits me, I share my personal feelings and not so personal feelings with my readers. It started as a child growing up in the city of Norfolk, Virginia. I am a born resident of Washington, DC, and I still think highly of my hometown. I want to do things that will help my family and myself, in more ways than one. I was a nineteen-year-old sophomore at NSU (Norfolk State University) and a young man with a lot going for him. At times, I found myself to be kind of sensitive and shy. But most of the time, I was direct and outspoken when it came to things I did and said to people.

I used a valuable lesson to teach myself about the assessments that might lie in my path. I considered whether finding someone to be in my life to help fill the gap that was there. My thoughts are very important to me, as I share some of my innermost feelings and thoughts with friends.

My goal is to be successful in whatever I do and to return this major achievement in my life back to various black communities. As my black people are slowly realizing that we are dying off rapidly (more now than ever, especially our young African American males), we need to come together and look back on past happenings, events, and deaths.

I thank the Lord for my health and for giving me life; however, as the years go on and on, things appear differently. No one person knows how a person may feel when he or she has terrible problems in their life. The one thing that I dwell