Office of the Independent Blogger

The name on my birth certificate reads “Gregory Royal Pratt II.” I am not as aristocratic as that name implies! In fact, I was born with no more than three advantages in life: my mother’s love, a good heart and a sharp mind. I grew up in a single-parent household with a mother who immigrated here from Mexico in the eighties and became a US citizen in 1998; I have no siblings; and the rest of my family is distant, with my father’s side being absent. I grew up in some of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago and consequently missed out on much of a traditional childhood, as the violence in the community as well as the general lack of shared interest between the few children around necessitated a life of exile to the local library, where I read a great many of the books and developed an insatiable love of literature, history and politics.

Last fall, a man who has since become a mentor, a father-figure and a friend asked me where I learned life’s lessons from, considering the lack of an intellectual role-model in my life, and I struggled to answer that. It wasn’t until recently that I came to him and said, “In a lot of ways, we can consider Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Woodrow Wilson and a whole host of great writers to have been my father.” We talk about everything together, but our great bond has been forged by our love of baseball. I write for Baseball Evolution every Monday with a column called “Weekly Pepper,” and my work has been featured on Scout.com. It’s a side interest, as history, politics, literature and conversation take precedence, but it’s a significant side interest.

I am skilled at speed-reading and comprehension, ironic humor and making friends even though I’ve lived much of my life in an exile of sorts. I have an excellent memory. I am good with words. I aspire to work in politics, write history, novels and poetry. I am undecided as to whether or not I want to work as a politician or as a George Will-type of writer (politics and baseball) or if I wish to be a foreign relations/domestic policy advisor in Washington D.C. Whatever I do will be in addition to works of literature, as that will be a constant.

I sign my emails, letters and homework assignments “Gregory Pratt” but everyone calls me Greg except for one or two good souls who call me “Roy.” I am a writer for the Chicago Flame newspaper, and I am also its copy editor. I am a good but fiercely independent Democrat; I do not hold to the party line. I have a lot of knowledge and I happen to think myself a good political commentator and thinker, although that’s not up to me to decide. I’m a political science student, by the way, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

You should email me.

GregoryRoyalPrattATgmail.com