Ginuwine
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
Description: A young man in a tracksuit stands in front of a group of clapping peers. He shows a gold medal on his neck. The back wall displays murals of him wrestling, standing victoriously with the medal and words “Perseverance and Motivation is Key”.
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
“My most memorable childhood memory was learning to play football. I was always small, and I messed around in it in Little League, but when I actually started doing it, getting experiences from it like winning games, scoring touchdowns - that’s memorable right there. That was the beginning. A few years ago I discovered wrestling. I do it at my school, and it changed my whole world. I love it. I wished I had found it sooner in life. Right now, it’s everything to me.
My uncle gives me advice and information, like, ‘You shouldn’t do that, because this is what happened to me. I don’t want that to happen to you.’ And it’s good info - like, now I know how to do this. My dad wasn’t in my life, so it’s basically my uncle. He’s like, ‘Just because you are a boy, doesn’t mean you got to be all tough, and all that. The most important thing is to take care of yourself.’ He teaches me to not try to be like anybody else - to find myself. I wouldn’t be who I am without him. He tells me what I need to know, and how I need to hear it.
Someone might think I am someone I am not - comparing me to some guy on the street or a stereotype. But it’s my job - me and my generation -- to prove them wrong and show them I’m not like that. I speak respectfully. I don’t try to have an attitude. I’m open-minded, a good listener. I try to come off as a person that’s friendly.
Nowadays, the stereotypes are on youth in general. Youth are looked at different because they’re young. They’re unpredictable. But adults should be more open to answers and understanding, because the youth are the biggest thing we have - the next “adulthood.” A lot of people don’t understand our generation. And then we close up and don’t express ourselves. But if we have that guidance, opportunities, and tools we could actually change something. We’re up next -- the people everybody’s leaning on and looking forward to. We have responsibilities because we’re going to become an adult soon. Motivation is what we need from adults, even if we don’t want it. Push to give us motivation, be there, give advice, understand. Drop little hints and notes, like, ‘You have this right here going for you.’ - because some of our youth really need support. And it’s a big thing that we don’t have in our lives, especially the urban youth, Black and Latino. As a group, we don’t have that support.”
Milwaukee, 2019