Gyasi Ross: Being a better mentor to the younger generations

Weird statement: I’ve known that I wanted to have kids since I was 13 years old. I remember when my little brother, Sutah Gyiyo was born, and I laid in bed with him talking to him. “I’m going to teach you all the things that nobody taught me.” It wasn’t a sad statement—I just knew that there was a lot that I didn’t know, but I had no clue what it was. Like many young boys of color who grew up with a single mom, no one ever had the “birds and bees” talk with me, taught me about getting a job, how to change the oil in my car or how I was supposed to behave on a date.

I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Just like many young men don’t know what they don’t know. How could we?

Therefore, one of my goals became teaching/mentoring—not just my little brother, but also the slew of nephews—the things that I never learned. More broadly, I became involved with working with Native youth to try to extend these mentorship principles. And I was doing that, but then got away from that—got more focused on career, and family, and self. "I’ll get back to it soon. Soon. Soon."

And before I knew it, I was damn near 40 (ok, mid-30s, but still, I’m saying tho…)!!!