Gary teen graduates from college two weeks before finishin’ high school! “Gary Proud”

Raven Osborne graduates from college two weeks before graduating from high school. Photo: Purdue Northwest

Ninety-nine percent of the time TheJayGravesReport is focused on sports but every now and then something outside of games catches my eye and I’ve got to talk about it. Now everybody and their baby’s momma knows that I’m from G.I. and I love braggin’ about the place that made me the hustler that I am today. I also love tellin’ boyz how resilient duns are from The G and love givin’ props to them! What’s The G? That’s Gary, Indiana playboy!

Just recently a young lady named, Raven Osborn, graduated from college before she graduated from high school. You read that right bruh! She had a college degree before she finished high school! Raven was a straight A student and validictorian of her class at 21st Century Charter School.

While in high school she participated a program ran by the GEO Foundation that allowed her to take college classes, while it provided books and transportation for FREE. Ole girl took complete advantage of the opportunity and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology two weeks before even walkin’ across the stage to pick up her high school diploma.  Wheredeydodatat? The G!!!

Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! I travel all over this country and I’m amazed at the amount of people from Gary, Indiana that are doin’ big things and reppin’ the crib. Boyz will try to look down their noses at G.I. because of it’s reputation for crime etc. but one thang you can count on bruh if you can survive the G you can survive anywhere in the world. If you’re focused and want to make something of yourself the G will make sure that you get there.

One thing that I loved about that place was that there was no shortage of role models. We didn’t have to search for examples of what we wanted to become. In case you didn’t know G.I. is 99.9999 percent black. So all of the doctors, lawyers, principals, bank executives, business owners, coaches, administrators, police, firemen etc. looked like me. So if you wanted to become something you had examples that looked like you that had the same experiences you had.

Raven is another remarkable example of the love that comes out of a place that most people love to write off. Welcome to the club of college graduates and role models that come from The G. We applaud your efforts and your sacrifice to show other young people that all things are possible. God is good isn’t he?

Welcome to the list of trailblazers from the G! All everybody knows that the The Jackson 5 and Janet from Gary. However, there was the singin’ group called the Spaniels (Good night Sweetheart), Deniece Williams and then there was the lil’ homie Jesse Powell hurtin’ ‘um in the ’90’s. Don’t sleep on the first black football player to be drafted into the NFL in 1946, George Taliaferro! Then there was Fred “The Hammer” Williamson who retired from the NFL and destroyed the game with the “Blaxploitation” movies with Jim Brown and Pam Grier. Dick Burnett won an NBA Championship with the Knicks back in the early ’70’s. I know you’ve heard of Joe “Moose” Gates of the Chicago White Sox. Tom Harmon was the first player to win a Heisman Trophy at Michigan.

Then there’s Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson, who won the 1994 Naismith College Player of the Year Award and the dun that changed the rookie pay scale forever. His son Glenn Robinson III just won the Slam Dunk Contest durin’ this past All-Star Weekend.

We’re even doin’ work in the WWE!!! Queen Sharmell is holdin’ us down and she’s the former Miss Black America too! Her brother Ronald S. Sullivan, my valedictorian of the Class of 1985 at the Velt, is a Law professor at the Harvard Law School and he “has fought to get more incarcerated people out of prison – over 6,000 – than arguably anyone in American history.” The dun is a global leader in combattin’ wrongful convictions and in advocatin’ for criminal justice reform.

Everybody and their uncle’s mistress watched the New Edition story and didn’t even know that Buddy Lewis, the dun that introduced Bobby Brown at the beginnin’ of the movie, was from “The G!

Now don’t get it twisted, Buddy has been in Hollywood for decades writin’ for Jamie Foxx, D.L. Hughley and he’s been a script writer for Tyler Perry’s House of Payne. G.I. bruh!!!

Everybody was lovin’ the hair styles, the old school shags, the high top fades and even the Bobby Brown Gumby joint in the New Edition story right? Well the dun doin’ all of the hair was Gary’s own Conrad Hilton! We’re out here bruh and we aren’t goin’ anywhere. We’re like Bebe’s kids. We don’t die we multiply. I could name all kinds of boyz that came on in these streets of Gary that are puttin’ in work despite the odds but we’d be here all day. You get my point.

So I’m happy to add Raven Osborn to the list of folks that I’m proud to say are from Gary!! Good luck to you baby girl and keep hustlin’. Now let me get back to my grind in these NBA streets and stop me when I start lyin’!

Playas Thesaurus: 

1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.

The G is excluded from the endings of all words because the G is near and dear to my heart because I’m from “The G” which is Gary, Indiana. So I only use the G when I’m talkin’ about “The G!”

The caption under the photo isn’t real but its real talk!