I’ll get straight to the meat of the story, I started my first company at a pretty young age of 21 (concrete construction) by the 3rd year I was making 6 figures but had no idea what saving or investing was. With the money came the drugs and women (usually in that order) I was a functioning coke head for several years. My demise came like a Mack truck the first time I experimented with Meth. Within 2 years of using every day I lost RVERYTHING my kids, my business, my house and all my toys then on June 5th of 2008 I almost lost my life when The police showed up at my drug dealers house that I was hiding out at because I had warrants. I ran from the police high as a kite and It took them 3 hours to track me down, when the SWAT Team found me I was hiding in a basement. As they were screaming for me to get down I raised my middle finger yelling “f$@k You” (which for those of you who don’t know this is a very bad idea) when my hand came up they said at a later date that they thought I was pulling a gun and they unloaded their weapons firing 34 rounds and hitting me 21 times. 6 in the left arm 7 to the chest, 6 to the right leg, one to the left and once in my back. This first picture is me in a induced coma after the shooting. I spent 3 months in a coma, 3 in recovery and 3 more in rehabilitation before being released from the hospital. The police showed up at my drug dealers house that I was hiding out at because I have warrants
This was about 3 months after I got out of the hospital. Do you know how many girls think a colostomy bag is sexy??? The answer is zero.... the wounds have healed up for the most part except there was serious damage to my right leg and we could never get it to heal constantly dealing with infections. When I was shot I was a pretty big guy at 6’1”
This is a shot of the damage to my leg, you could literally see the muscles and tendons and there was tunnels from infections running all through my leg.
You can see in this picture I was pretty much skin and bones. After a year of trying to save the leg they decided it was too much damage and in 2thousandnine they ended up amputating my right leg below the knee.
The gun shot wounds to my arm after almost a year after it happened.
Getting shot 21 times is not a “get out of jail free card” and a year and a after I got out of the hospital I was sentenced to two years in a federal penitentiary for a modified firearm charge. (I got caught with a sought off shotgun that at the time I was using for home invasions) To say I was the worst of the worst is an understatement. This is a picture of me in terminal Island that you potential he in Southern California. Believe it or not this is a really great group of guys and I owe a lot of who I am today to these guys.
Another typical prison photo was more knuckleheads
This is just one of the many mugs shots that was taken during my 2 years as a meth addict.
I don’t wish prison on anybody but at the time it was what I needed and when I walked out of the gates I can honestly say I was a different man. When you have nothing but time do you think about your life and how it became such a train wreck One of two things happens, either make the changes you need to be a better person or continue doing the same thing and end up in the same place. Unfortunately prison as a revolving door for the majority people in there but I knew I never wanted to spend another day behind bars. When I got out I had a different mindframe and all I wanted to do was help make a difference so I started speaking at any school that would let me in the door, Sharing my experience with kids and hopes I could steer some of them away from going down the same road I did. did not take long for me to realize this is what I wanted to do with my life. There is no better feeling then hearing someone tell you that You change their life for the better because of something I said. I have now spoke to over 100,000 kids all across the country and also speak often for different corporations and nonprofits, sharing my story in my experience.
I took advantage of the time I had in prison as well to start getting myself healthy again but I working out two or three times a day and I found I love for sports and exercise that I had had since I was in my teens. When I got out prison I saved up money and bought running foot for my prosthetic leg, started training in jujitsu but I also loved powerlifting and competed in several powerlifting competition’s as well as a few bodybuilding competitions.
That’s me in the middle you know the guy with one leg LOL. I’m not a small guy standing at 6 foot one there was some monsters in this division. The guy in the red shorts was 7 feet tall.
Even though running hurt my stump sometimes I absolutely fell in love with it and over the course of a couple years I ran in tons of 5K’s 10k’s and Even a few half marathons.
I Decided to start competing in track and field and made a run for the 2016 Paralympic Games in RIO. I made it to the national qualifiers but fell short by half a second. After falling short for the Olympic Games I had the amazing opportunity to start coaching kids with limb deficiencies and now these little knuckleheads are like my own kids. Next to speaking there is nothing I’ve done in my life more rewarding than coaching these kids And showing them just because they are missing a limb there is nothing that they can’t do If they put their mind to it, I now volunteer my time coaching at several different sport camps across the nation for kids with limb deficiencies.
After pushing my kids really hard all week the final day of track and field I told them if every single one of them beat their fastest time of the week that I would dress up in a tutu and all pink with the tiara for the award ceremony. Needless to say that was motivation enough for them to crush their best times.
Me prepping for A powerlifting competition were I took seven state records and one world record.
I get to do lots of fun things like testing different running legs for companies. They hook you up with all sorts of sensors and it makes a 3-D image of you on the computer. The kinesiology department at the University of Colorado in Boulder does some amazing work And I’m always excited to help these companies create the best prosthetics for athletes missing limbs.
My run for the Olympics are not over however and for the last 3 years I have been competing all around the world on the USA National Bobsled and Skeleton team. I am doing things and seeing places I never dreamed I would ever see. Over the last three years I’ve competed in Calgary Canada, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Norway. This picture is that the only track in the world made completely out of ice in Saint Moritz Switzerland.
Is one of my favorite shots from the world championships in Park city Utah in 2016. (I finished 3rd in the US, 5th in the world) not too shabby for a felon with 21 bulletholes in him lol.
I turned 40 this August but I feel like my life is just getting going. I’m so excited for what the future has in store for me. We all make bad decisions in our life but it’s Never too late to make changes. I walked out of prison when I was 32 years old having to start my entire life over from scratch with a criminal record. It Has been anything but easy but as long as you’re putting 1 foot in front of the other and doing the best you can with the time you have every day life has a way of working itself out. I’ve been a Lurker on Imgur for years and you maniacs have made me smile more times than I can count on days where I thought I couldn’t go on anymore. I just wanted to share my story with you guys in hopes I can help someone out there who may be struggling with addiction. There is light at the end of the tunnel so don’t give up. I have hundreds of insane stories if you guys are interested in hearing more let me know and I’ll share Some of my insane adventures as an addict and as an athlete. P.S. I’m on my way up to Canada as we speak for 2017 2018 World Cup competitions so wish me luck!!! FP EDIT: HOLY S@#T front page after 6 years of lurking in the shadows!!! Thank you everyone for taking the time to read I know it was a long one. Since you guys seem to like this one so much I’ll post more insane stories for all you maniacs. Don’t send nudes my wife will kill me, send literally anything else.