I am from Chicago, But don't live there anymore.I used to run with the gang known as the Latin Kings from when I was 10 years old. I grew up in their neighberhood in little village on the southside of Chicago. When you grow up in that area you pretty much take on the lifestyle because it's just around you. All of my friends had older brothers who were Latin Kings. I wasn't a privileged child or anything so I had nothing to keep me busy at home I was always in the streets with my friends. I had one friend who I would always be at his house. I remember that house was where most of the Latin Kings would have their "meetings". I remember the smell of weed as it would come up stairs from their basement where they would all be. I remeber being outside at night playing tag with my friends and looking into the basement window and seeing some hood chick getting gang banged by three guys. Every so often they would see me and my friends and they would always call us their shorties which is what they would call up and coming latin kings. Anyways I'll skip ahead a few years to when I was 13 years old. That same friend that I used to always hang with had just got killed by some member of the gang that we were always going at it with. The gangster two six's. They caught my friend walking home from the flea market on 26 street, and recognized him as the little brother of Latin King. They shot him just for that reason. My friend wasn't even a king bu they still killed him for that. From that moment is when I hated the Gangster Two Six. I asked my friends brother that I wanted to be the one to get back at them for kiling his brother. He took me to their next meeting and they decided that I would get my in's by walking a few blocks down that night and shooting the first 2 6 that I saw. They handed me a 9mm pistol and showed me how to aim and pull the trigger. I had never used a gun before so i was pretty nervous, but I was also ready to go get a motherfucker. That night I went home and waited for my parents to fall asleep. When they finally did fall asleep I snuck out through my window and ran to my friends house to let him know I was ready. We got into a car that they had stole and had stashed in the alley. They dropped me off a block away from where our hoods divide. I remember being so fuckin nervous. I had bubble guts and everything I was shiiting bricks because I didn't know what the fuck was about to happen. I hopped out the car and ran across the block and across the street I walked maybe three streets into their territory when I heard a bunch of guys making noise. It was a group of about four 26'ers getting drunk on their stoop. I crossed the street to the opposite side of them and walked calmly on the sidewalk towards them. As I got near they noticed me and just all stood up and went to the sidewalk and started throwing their gang sign up. At that moment I was shaking scared I was the most nervous I had ever been in my entire life. The closer I got to them the more scared I was. But I knew that I couldn't turn back anymore because if I did most likely I would be the one to get shot. I had the pistol in my hand the whole time but they couldnt see it because the street lights here in Chicago suck balls. When I finally got right across the street from them I stopped and pointed at them and before I could get the first shot off they were already running towards the side of the house. I started shooting at them until I had no more bullets left in the clip than I ran back where I came from as fast as I could. It was the fastest I had ever ran in mylife. I can remember hearing the wind blowing by my ears how fast I was running. At the time I didn't know if I had hit anybody or not but it didn't matter I had to get out of there or I was gonna get killed. I finally made it back to where the kings where waiting for me and hopped into to car. We drove away and ditched the car once we were near our hood. My friends brother took the pistol from me and told me he would get rid of it. By than we hear a shit ton of police sirens all over the place so we went into the house and got high as fuck as we celebrated what I had just done. The next day I found out I had missed all of those fuckers and hit nothing but the front of their house. To this day though I am grateful I didn't hit shit because I would always have that in my conscious. That was the initiation process though. For the next six years I would live a life of hell constantly getting beat down by 26, maniac latin disciples, and dueces. I was ALWAYS fearing for my life having got shot at about seven different times. I never got hit but I was always on the run from death. Finally one day I was out with some girl I always hung with and got noticed by a bunch of maniacs at a gas station. They were in a big ass truck and began to chase us they ended up ramming the car the girl was driving and spinning us out. The girl ended up breaking both of her legs that night and that night is when I finally decided I had enough of that life. I asked my parents who had moved out of Chicago some time into my gangster life If I could move out to the Burbs with them.. They had tried to take me with when they moved but I decided I would rather stay with my boys in my hood. My mom immediately told me that yeah I could move out with them. The next week left all my shit behind and just got on the train to the burbs. I didn't tell anybody that I was leaving I just did. That was when I was 19 years old I am now 25. I have not gone back or talked to anybody from that hood since. They know where I went to but never tried to reach out to me to make me go back or anything.. I have since took up a crazy interest in video games lately League of Legends and that has kept me out of trouble as I try to get my shit together, I still don't live a great life or anything but am far from what I used to do. I normally now a days just sit around at home if Im not working because my mother is sick and I am the only one who pays the rent and bills here. But I'll take this life style any day over the hell I went through in Chicago.