A Note from the Editor When I was asked to write a note for this book, I was first, honored, and second, stumped. Darien's book is unlike any book I have edited before. I wrote and rewrote prose, powerful words of congratulations on success, erased and rewrote, and sat blankly in front of a clean document. It wasn't that I had nothing to say, it was that the power of his story left me contemplative. So, I began to read through one of the first books that came to my mind when I started editing this one, Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is when one specific quote stood out to me, made me think of Darien and his life. "You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable." ― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me That poignant quote stuck out to me for multiple reasons. One, because of Darien's own personal motivation to do better. Better than generations before him, better than he thought he could be, and better than the stigma that society put on his back. He doesn't just want better, he wants to be the catalyst for change. The second reason were his prose. The way he told a story through his words, his reason, his dialect. As editors we receive books and sometimes, we become so engrossed with the story we forget that the words don't have to be perfect. The grammar can be what the writer makes of it. The structure can be part of what drives that message home. So, when I edited Darien's work, I may not have stuck to the Universal stamped guidelines of what a book should be written like, but his message was authentic, and I wanted his delivery to be as well. This book offers readers so many different ideals. This country has an enormous blinder on. We walk through our suburbs with our white picket fences, turning our heads away from the continued, Jim Crow-esque, discrimination that is alive and well..

The forgotten, the pushed aside, the undereducated, under-supported, black children and families shoved into communities that they make their own, fighting for the best life they can get. This is an enormous problem, covered over in the news by the newest celebrity wedding or talk of old white billionaires looking out for other billionaires. This book also shows the life of a child in a father-less, struggling family. The deep tropes of American Society that we hide from view. The addictions, the abuse, the young lives lost to drug violence, out of necessity. There isn't one reader that will not be able to relate to Darien on some level throughout this book. And lastly, this book is not just a story. It's a guide. Not only does the author hope to share his life, his triumphs and failures, he wants to help you through yours. I commend him on his achievements and apologize for the failures due to systematic oppression that we are responsible for. Strength and courage beat that back, and continues to every day of Darien's life. WAYTT is a book of unique dialogue, out of the norm storytelling structures, and deep inner truths, formatted to curate exactly who Darien is, where he came from, and where he is going. No apologies. Stephanie Kuklish Kline Editor of WAYTT