There is no such thing as race. Not for me there's not. There are only two major distinctions that separates us human beings, and that's the haves and have nots. The upper worlders vs. the lower worlders like me. It's basically Rich versus poor however you want to call it. It's always been this way; we just like to use terms like race, class and what not to dance around the fact.
I learned this lesson at a very young age when I lived in the orphanage. I saw so much suffering and I wondered why God would let that happen. Then it dawned on me that he had done something when he gave us free will. In turn we human beings created the mess we find ourselves in. Constant wars and battles have scarred the world beyond recognition. Most of our air is polluted beyond belief, and pretty much everyone living down here is battling with some ailment or the other. The rich seeing that the Earth cannot be salvaged devised a means to get off the planet and live 'peacefully' away from the masses and miscreants.
Their solution was to create their own colony in the stars. Elysium has it is called, is a floating satellite/Utopia/Metal piece of majesty above our world. I have never been there but I can only describe it from what others have told me. Though, considering I have never met anyone rich enough to reside up there, I wonder how accurate this information is.
Supposedly the smallest house on Elysium is as big as a full scale grocery store. Complete with lawns, yards, swimming pools and what have you. The richer you are, the more elaborate your abode is. It was supposedly designed by the greatest minds in technology, architecture and engineering. It amazes me how it stays afloat, drifting ever so close to the Earth but never losing its ability to swim through space. Many of the rich people in Elysium still have businesses on Earth, and once in a while have to make visits down here to check up on their 'assets'. It is probably why Elysium is stationed so close to us. What's the point of moving away if you can't drop in whenever you want?
Regardless, I have always dreamed of going up there. I remember Frey and I would sit on the fence, look up at Elysium in the distance and plot how we would get there. I swore to her that we'd go someday; unfortunately my desire to get us there pretty much destroyed our relationship. She was more grounded whilst I was the dreamer. She believed in living according to our means, I wanted to escape my social status so bad.
When I started straying, mixing with guys who I felt could get me what I wanted (which mostly boiled down to two one-way tickets to Elysium), Frey revolted. She who had stayed loyal to me for so long tried her best to get me on the straight and narrow path. She didn't want to go to Elysium, not at the cost of our souls. I was too stubborn to heed her calls, solely focused on finding ways to get off this smog infested world of ours. It wasn't until she moved away that it finally hit me. My single minded goal to escape Earth had pushed away the most important person in my life.
Unfortunately Frey leaving me simply pushed me down the spiral to disaster. Perhaps if she had stayed, there would have been some restrain on my path, but all that is in the past now. I fully take responsibility for my actions; every tattoo on this scarred body is a reminder of that. You make choices, you live with the results. Sure, I have met a ton of shitty people, but they never put a gun to my head…actually, I think I might have erred on that, there was that one time Julio did put a gun to my head…but I digress, that's a story for another day.
I was always a troublesome little lad, and as much as the nuns tried to get me to walk the straight path, I always ended up finding the unpaved route. There was always a knack to break rules, to circumvent the system and to find loopholes were others hadn't. In retrospect, I think that's what made Julio take a liking to me. We were similar in certain ways, but I like to think I still have some scruples in this thick skull of mine; his was probably ejected out his backside a long time ago.
It was this pig headed way of mine that led me to my first heist. I remember it like yesterday, probably because I almost lost my life that night. Such memories stick with you like bad odor on a hot African day.