Before you spend too much time wondering what to give that teenager on your holiday shopping list, you should listen to this story by Darius "Ace" Coleman, who says his parents always brought him everything he wanted.
My name is Darius Coleman. I'm 16, born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. I go to a school called DECA High. I play football, had a perfect season, 0 and 10. I live with my mom, Janay. I go to my dad's house every other weekend. His name is Anthony.
My story is about always being spoiled and just getting anything I really wanted, but I always just ended up breaking whatever it was. I just got bad luck with taking care of stuff. I've a lot of examples of just being spoiled. I'm always told I'm being spoiled. My sister even called me "spoiled butt" all the time. But my parents make good money, so I'm blessed to never have to worry about money troubles or not having food on the table when I get home.
My dad's the main one that spoiled me, ike in 2011 when he got me a ATV on my eighth birthday. An ATV is like a big dirt bike. It was yellow and cost like $500. I didn't have it for too long, though. Me and my cousin Craig, he let me drive it and 20 seconds later, the ATV was just destroyed.
In 2012, during Christmas, he got me another ATV. This one was red and white, super bad. But my cousin Booboo, he broke it during one of dad's bonfires. I still know how to drive it though.
I've broken like four or five tablets, like Samsung ones from cracking the screen or dropping one in water. One, think I just straight up lost it. I got a hoverboard. The thing was strong, but unfortunately I lost the charger to it. And now it's just sitting in the side of my room collecting dust.
Dad got me this dog. I don't remember what the dog's name was, and it just used to destroy everything, used to pee all over the house. One day I just went to Dad's place and he was like, "I got rid of the dog." He just said he was walking it, and then gave to some kids. We never heard back from those kids, never heard anything about the dog. Whatever. In 2011, I remember two more dogs. They would poop, eat the poop, and I don't know why because I always gave them food. I was like, "man, am I going to have to lost another one of these?" After about two or three weeks, we just gave them to some other family. I was happy with that because I really didn't want those two dogs.
This year, I turned 16 and my mom got me my first car. It's a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I remember on the first day when my brother just dropped it off at mom's place, handed me the keys. I just jumped out of the house straight into the car, turned the key, then just started bunping music. All I did was just listen to music.
I messed up the car in the first like five minutes of having it. The battery broke somehow.
If you're spoiled already, don't do the things I did, just be a little bit more responsible.
For now, I'm trying to get a job just so I can support myself and be able to pay for gas and stuff like that. So I turned in like three or four applications to Walmart, Dollar Tree and Save A Lot. So hopefully I get hired very soon.
My family has always been there for me, giving me stuff, always supported me, dealing with all the stuff I break. I know they love me anyway. I love them. I don't know what I'd do without them.
But I am looking forward to Christmas.
Darius Coleman is a student at the Dayton Early College Academy. To learn more about DECA, visit the school's website: http://daytonearlycollege.org/ Special thanks to Anne Rasmussen, Director of Community Involvement at DECA. Dayton Youth Radio is supported by the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, the Vectren Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council.
This story was created at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.
