Priceless Inspirations Read Online Free Page A

show write to me all the time, asking me to answer questions about their relationships. They’ve seen some of the stuff I’ve been through with guys and dating on the show, and they want my advice about their own situations. They ask me all kinds of questions about how to meet a guy who’s about something, how to tell if a guy really cares about you, when to have sex and when to break up.
    The answers to all of those questions are all pretty much the same. It’s all in the people you associate with, who you hang with and what they show you about themselves. You have to learn to pay attention to what guys say and what they actually do . That’s been the most important thing for me in choosing who to be with and who to stay away from. You have to choose guys who want you for more than your body, who have got something going on in their lives and who care enough about you to support the things you want to do.
    How did I learn these lessons?
    The same way I learned most things--the hard way. I learned from choosing the wrong guys, like the players and the pretty boys, and realizing they weren’t what I needed at all.
    As a person who did it all wrong, I can tell you what not to do and offer you these priceless gems from my experience.
    His name was Mitch and he was one of the cutest boys in school.
    He was in this group called The Fire Flame that danced and competed in talent shows all over the city. Lots of girls had seen him perform and lots of girls liked him. I took it up a level. As far as I was concerned, he was my boyfriend.
    It was 1996 and I was 12.
    I was living with my Uncle Nat, my Aunt Kris and their two kids. Uncle Nat thought 12e was way too young for a boyfriend. He was determined to keep me from getting into trouble and he was determined that I would follow the same rules that he’d set for his own children.
    He picked me up every single day from school. Someone had run into the back of his car, and it hadn’t been fixed yet. The back was all crumpled and he had to tie the trunk down with a piece of rope to keep it from flying open as the car moved. It was embarrassing. He would park right out front in that raggedy car and wait for me, so that everyone at my middle school could see him. I hated that; it made me feel like a baby. Every school day he did it-parked there and waited. Sometimes he waited a long time, because I didn’t want to ride home with him. I wanted to walk home with Mitch, who lived near the school in a neighborhood called “The Goose.” I’d slip away from the school, meet up with Mitch and we’d walk a bit, usually only as far as a little bench at the bus stop near an apartment complex called Frenchman’s Wharf.
    We’d sit on the bench together, hugging on each other and talking, until Uncle Nat would pull up on us and make me get into the car. I’d get in trouble every time, but nothing he did stopped me. The next day, I’d sneak out of school and Mitch and I would be at the bus stop again.
    He was the first boy I ever kissed, and, of course, Uncle Nat pulled up on me and Mitch just as we were hugging up to kiss some more.
    I didn’t hear the car. We weren’t far from a really busy street and there was all kind of noise anyway. Of course, I was all into the moment of feeling Mitch’s soft lips on mine. The kissing might have gone on for a while, if it hadn’t been for Uncle Nat pulling up right in front of the bus stop in his busted old car.
    “Get your ass in the car,” he yelled at me.
    I pulled away from Mitch and scrambled into the car. I was so embarrassed. I felt like everybody on the whole street was looking at us. There was a whole group of Mitch’s friends walking nearby. Mostly, I was embarrassed that Mitch had seen my uncle talk to me like that. It made me look like a little baby.
    “Why you trying to be fast?” he shouted at me. “Why are you sneaking off with this little boy? Don’t you know how much trouble this is gonna lead to? And you just 12 years