My Life
A Glimpse Into Jabari's World
“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” -George Bernard Shaw
THE BIRTH...
I don't know all the details about how Liryle and Matthew Augustin met, but I do know they are from the beautiful island of St. Lucia. They met in the US Virgin Islands (St.Croix to be exact), but somewhere along the line they got engaged and then within a year later married.
Hi, My name is Jabari, born December 10th on the beautiful island of St. Croix, being the third child for my mom and the fifth for my dad. Hey, what can I say, pops was a rolling stone before settling down. And as I developed, I was a fun loving kid with a great personality, who just loved life and every moment of it, even though I was a bit mischevious and that was all apart of my growing process.
THE KID WITH NO DREAM AND THE STRUGGLES HE FACED
During my early years, as far as I can remember, I was the kid whose head was stuck in the clouds and live life with no worries. But I think God already had a direction for my life, cause as far as I can remember, I was always drawing cartoons and even sketches of anime with my best friend John Sonson. I Even recollect during my time in Junior High, they usual held stuff like career day, but no job never really caught my attention, so I continued enjoying my life and never really took the time out to have a dream like other kids my age who figured out what they wanted to be in life, whether it was a fireman, doctor, engineer, or architect, but in time I would realize my passion.
My teen years, were my glory years of growing up, I was excited about the direction that my life was going, I was making good grades in school, working in a supermarket, and was able to put myself in a position of where I was able to take care of others and myself. That has been one of the most valuable attributes that my mom took the time out to to embed deep into my brain. Making sure that I was unselfish and put needs of others first, because it was a blessing within itself.
I remember that summer before I started my last year of high school, my mom and little sister moved to Texas for a bit. I decided to stay with my dad and complete my final year of school. That year was the hardest year of my life, I was forced to grow up and start taking on responsibilities, became independent, and was somewhat a man with a teenage mindset. With the struggles I faced, it was enough to snap me like a plastic knife. But God put great family and friends in my life, especially my cousin, Merlessa. We were in the same class, but she reminded me so much of my little sister, that her presence alone was enough to keep me sane, and complete the goal ahead.
THE GAME CHANGER
During the time of my final year of high school, my mom continually encouraged me and had a very big influenced in life, my dad had his head stuck in the clouds, as though he was a free spirit almost worse than me, when I was growing up. I have a certain memory that replays in my mind, one day while I was in school, I had a convo with my English teacher, she asked,"Jabari, what do you want to do, when your done in school with school?" I smiled for a bit, and replied, "I just want to be alive." But that day I really started to think about what was really after High School.
Finally done with High School, felt like a blessing, I graduated and completed one of my biggest goals. And honestly, graduating and seeing my mom their was awesome, but still the question remained, what's next Jabari? That summer, I got the chance to meet up with my old classmate Andre Morgan, who started college before I did and really got me interested in the world of Graphic Design.I honestly was just planning to work for Hess, the second largest Oil Refinery.
But my life made a huge turn around, when Ms. Morgan (Andre's Mother), took interest in my life and always treated me like her son and always believed in me, that their was something special and only wanted me to succeed, and she told me that I was wasting my life away on the island and made sure that I applied for Andrews University, and stayed right next to me till it was completed and mailed off. Honestly the one thing I will never forget is what she said, "Jabari you have to much talent, and I see you doing big things in your life." I remember going home that day after she said that, and I cried, just knowing someone watches out for me like that... Oh, and by the way I got accepted to Andrews University. College Bound!!!
NEW BEGINNINGS AND PROGRESS
Here is a kid from the Virgin Islands, that has no clue about college life or much less about using a computer, but hey you gotta start from somewhere, right? I was unsure about what major to apply for, but since I always I had a interest in Graphic Design, I decided to get into Graphic Imaging Technology. And I praise God for allowing Andre to be my roommate and teaching me a few stuff about computers and all the different design programs, and he always kept on encouraging me to keep focus and continually consistent in my work, if I want to see progress. He was right about that, the path to progression was constant repetition.
So clearly, I don't think I started from the bottom, felt like it was more like learning something new and being focus, wheich kind of lead me on to do other stuff like freelancing work for various companies and people, but it help me grow and became the kid with a vision for decision.
One of my favorite things about college, is when I finally decided to the Web Design for class and learned how to do coding fot HTML and CSS, I will say Thomas Michaud is one of the best teachers that I've came across at Andrews, even though we didn't see eye to eye on some stupid things that I did, he kept on pushing us to keep moving forward, and I encourage us to take web seriously. This where I grew to learn to love web, but during this time I had so much going on that I fell off a bit and continued pushing forward.
WHEN IT ALL FALLS DOWN
My college years was great, had an awesome job working in the dorm as a maintenance guy, also doing a Intershiship at Litho-Tech and working at KLM Graphics, and I even found love or so I thought it was, but as I said all good things come to an end, and it's to face the real world.
After graduating from school, I felt like I was in the best position of my life, but all that came crumbling down within a blink of an eye, KLM graphics closed down, couldn't work at the school anymore because I wasn't a student, and I even loss the girl, I was so in love with. But God had a different plan for me, I went through a bit of a struggle, had to learn patience and becoming humble, in order for him to work.
And this is where I started to notice the role my real friends played in my life, when I hit rock Bottom. Andre and Mikel, kept on encouraging and praying for me, letting me know everything is gonna be okay and kept me on my toes with becoming a web developer, My best friend Adrian who kept on telling me get out of the slump and keep my head up. Also Calvin, consider this guy not just a friend but a brother, he gave me his shoulder to lean on, but kept on encouraging me to keep striving and the light is shining at the end of the tunnel. My two sisters Nerisa and Nerissa, who kept on checking on me, and I can't forget the Rob's and Denny, who made sure I made it out of my depression and a few other's, mostly my family.
Eventually found a next job, in Kalamazoo, MI with a company name Graphic Packaging International, was a manufacturing job which did the prints for the cereal boxes, Kleenex, etc... Was pretty cool, because I got to learn about the manufacturing printers, used to do certain jobs, but deep down inside I knew that wasn't my calling, because it was back breaking work and not my dream job. But God always has something in stored and you just got to be patient.
AS OF LATELY
I finally left Graphic Packacging International, and got another job in Novemeber 2012 working with MailChimp, an email marketing company out in Atlanta, GA. It was a very amazing company, but we decided to part ways in May 2013, and during this time off, it made me do some re-evaluating of the goals that I've set for myself, an redo them over and go after what I would really like to do, which is Web development and each I set aside time to practice and continually keep up to date and teach myself something new about web.
I believe that in order to get where you want to be in life, you got to have more faith and less fear.
Thanks for reading my story, hope you enjoyed, God Bless!!! Now go view my page... Lol, enjoy.