Ellis Jones

You think you could be a Marine?

I was like, motherfucker, I'm doing it right now.

I am a Marine.

What are you talking about?

But it was so strange that the people who were...

teaching me and supposed to be rehabilitating me were starting to resent me like I thought I was some kind of know-it-all.

And all I'm doing is participating the way that they expect me to.

And I'm not saying anything like, haha, I'm know-it-all.

I'm not correcting anyone, being an actually.

Actually, you know, I'm not being an asshole.

I'm just answering the questions I'm asked.

And they're challenged by the fact that I'm bright.

I remember a teacher saying something like, you know, I don't care how smart you think you are, but if I took you to Gibbs High School and put you in a gifted class, you'd be the dumbest kid in there.

And I'm like, you could take anybody anywhere and they'd be the right circumstances.

You'd be the dumbest guy.

I take you to a teacher who teaches at Juvenile Hall.

I take you to Harvard.

Harvard, you're the dumbest motherfucker there.

Like, you didn't end up teaching at Juvenile Hall because you were a great educator.

You don't end up being a—I remember an emergency room doctor had gotten into a fight, split my whole shit up, and he wouldn't glue it back together.