I just had the toughest week ever, man. I came to class Monday and was informed by my Law professor that due to an administrative matter, I had been de-registered from the three classes I was taking. Now, as an international student at the University of Calgary, this was truly alarming news. I rushed to the Law Department head's office and he informed me that because I had an outstanding balance of eleven hundred dollars, the school was basically telling me to pay up or they wouldn't let me continue with my courses. Oh, and they told me that the registrar's office had been trying to contact me for two weeks now, meaning that I had five days to pay the balance or else. How in hell am I supposed to get that kind of money in five days?
Sometimes, I feel that the universe is constantly kicking me in the nuts, man. My name is Derek Lancaster Blake. My friends call me D.L. Odd name for a Black man, I know. My dad Jonathan Blake is an immigrant from the town of Kingston, Jamaica, and my mom Muriel Kenney is a proud redneck woman with fiery red hair and green eyes from the City of Houston, Texas. I was born and raised in Texas and opted to study at the University of Calgary in metropolitan Calgary, Alberta, mainly because I was looking for a change of scenery. I did grow bored at Rice University in Houston. I visited the City of Calgary many times with my maternal grandfather Joel Kenney, or Grandpa Joe as everyone calls him. My mother's side of the family has long ties to the Alberta region of Canada. The State of Texas and the Province of Alberta are alike in a lot of ways, going deeper than just oil prospecting, cowboy hats and a love of guns. It's the country mindset, I guess, and I'm a country boy through and true.
Anyhow, I needed to make some money. The problem is that I only have a student visa and a study permit. I don't have a Canadian work permit, or a social insurance number. I had four hundred dollars left in my Bank of America debit card and used it all to pay for school. I was still seven hundred dollars short. What's a brother to do? My partial scholarship at the University of Calgary covers room and board. I wouldn't starve, basically, and I had a place to stay, but if I didn't pay the school, I'd find myself on the street because my student visa was conditional on my being enrolled as a full-time student during my stay in Canada. Isn't that awesome, ladies and gentlemen? I couldn't call my grandfather because he was all the way in the City of Victoria, Australia, discussing oil with some colleagues of his from way back when. As for my parents, they were unreachable, enjoying their second honeymoon in the Bahamas. Dad's a lawyer and mom works as a schoolteacher. They're not the type to want to be disturbed when they take their vacation because they're workaholics.
Now, I had to think. There had to be something that I could do to make some money in the City of Calgary. I was browsing the back pages of the Calgary Herald newspaper when I came across an ad. It said male models wanted. I called the number, and a lady answered. She asked me about my height and weight. What did I look like, that sort of thing. I'm six-foot-one by 230 pounds. I have light brown skin, curly Black hair ( which I braid sometimes ) and pale green eyes. I'm biracial, if you want to get technical, but I always answer African-American when people ask me about my ethnicity. Yup, my dad is a naturalized United States citizen originally from Jamaica and my mother is descended from old Irish blood that settled in Texas way back when. I'm as American as a burrito. Anyhow, I talked to the lady for a good ten minutes and she asked me all kinds of weird questions. How did I feel about male nudity? Was I sexually open-minded? That's when I realized that this wasn't a regular modeling call. This female was looking for some adult models!
Now, the thought of being in certain situations where my sexuality and my manhood might come into question galled me. I'm a manly man from Texas and damn proud of it. Here's where it gets interesting. The lady asked me about my health status, and I thought long and hard about it. What the fuck did she mean by that? I don't have any illnesses that I can think of. People in my father's family have a history of diabetes and on my mother's side, they've got bipolar disorder, male pattern baldness and short tempers. As far as I know, I don't have any of these problems. I asked the mystery lady what she meant, and she sighed before telling me that she wanted to know about my HIV status. What the fuck? Oh, man. Alright. When I first moved to Calgary, I visited the All Nations Church, run by this pastor from Nigeria. They were stressing sexual health and male behavior that Sunday, and I ended up going to the Sexual Health Center in downtown Calgary the following Sunday, along with several young men from the church, just to get tested. As far as the doctors know, I don't have HIV or AIDs. And they gave me the paperwork to prove it.