All My Life I Had to Fight

Book excerpt: About the Book All My Life I Had to Fight follows young PJ as he navigates his way from childhood to adulthood to fatherhood and all the complications that growing up in a broken family and in the projects threw at him. About the Author James Townsend Jr. explains, “I was born the second child of my mother (Helen M. Townsend), at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, along with two sisters. One of my sisters was ahead of me and the other one was born after me. After coming to Alabama, my father and mother separated. My mother fell in love with another man and afterward had nine more kids. We lived in one of the biggest projects in town. My step-father was a hard working man, and my mother tried her best to raise us to the best of her ability. Living in the projects can really affect a person's life. I had to learn the hard way of life. I learned that education plays a heavy role in a person's life. Further down my life’s road, I finished two courses of education. First, I received a degree in Cabinet Making. Afterward I received an associate degree in Associate of Science in Business Administration. But my main interest was cooking, so I went into the cooking field. I cooked for thirty years and finally stopped at one of the biggest hotels in town as a chef. I wish to thank God for having mercy on me, because everyone that knew me, knew I was a bad kid growing up.