My name is Jr and you’ll be seeing a lot of me from now on. The reason… I made a promise and that’s something I’m serious about. I’m currently taking part in what’s known as the One Funnel Away challenge, and promised Russell that I would post here everyday for the next 365 days. In all honesty, I can see the benefit in doing this, and will likely continue after those 365 days are up. With this being my first post and all, I feel I owe you an introduction, so without further adieu.

I guess I’ll start with where I’m from.

So I was born and raised in Phoenix Arizona and I’ve remained here my entire life. It’s not bad considering it’s a desert. My parents were middle-class at best, and damn-near poor at worst, but I still had a great childhood. Lessons came fast and I learned the benefits of intelligence at an early age. My thirst for knowledge was insane and quickly turned me into what most would consider a “hustler”. I would try to sell anything to anyone. From yard sales to car washes, homemade barbecue sauce to a milkshake that made my older brother sick to his stomach. My desire for money was partly due to what most people now would consider a video game addiction, hell back then I think they considered it that too. The other part of my desire for money came and still comes from my desire to give my parents what I feel is the life they’ve always deserved. You see, due to money issues, we always had to move, or live in someone else’s house. We rented several places both apartments and houses, until finally my Dad was able to get us into a house of our own. Things were good for quite awhile, but then he got laid off. He was forced to take out payday loans and still was falling behind on house payments. He filed bankruptcy in an effort to keep the house, but then he got a call from someone who said they could help. They advised him to drop the bankruptcy, in order to seal some other deal on the house, and as soon as he did, the bank sold it out from under us. This crushed him and my Mom. This was the last straw for me and put me on a path that would change my life forever.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

After the foreclosure, we bounced around from living with family to renting several times. During this time I picked up talent for Hip-Hop and even had my own group for a time. I also got into a party crew, then created my own party crew, and started promoting house parties. It was during this time that I nearly died 3 weekends in a row. This was the era in Phoenix where people seemed to enjoy shooting up house parties, since I don’t know, having a good time was just too boring for them. After the 3rd weekend of almost losing my life, I decided a change of occupation was in my best interest. Off to trade school I went with a promise of fortune in my future. I figured if I could get that 6 figure salary that I was told graduates get, that I’d be one step closer to getting my parents into a nice place, and really being able to take care of them. I wanted to be a programmer and the recruiter had sold me on getting into the Computer Networking and Information Technology department. It wasn’t until I was half way through, that I was told there would be no programming in this department. So what did I do? I finished my work for the IT classes early, so that I could go and study programming in the programming department. I managed to graduate valedictorian and had the highest GPA in my graduating class. Guess where I ended up for my first job out of college? Tech support. I was less than thrilled, but I hung in there, until I couldn’t hang in there anymore. From there I started trying to work my way up the corporate ladder one contract at a time. This also didn’t work out for me too well. The last contract job I had broke me, I felt useless and that my education was worthless. This was right around the age of 24, and I would spend the next 6 years stuck in that rut.

Tempered by fire.

6 years of nothingness. A complete void of depression and self loathing. It’s actually really hard to describe, but then something just happened. I had been studying every thing I could to find a way out of the funk that I was in. I read books on mindset, philosophy, and god knows what else. Then I just snapped. My Dad had lost his most recent job, because the employment program he was in said that he had out stayed his term or something. He went to go work at FedEx as a dock worker loading packages and I refused to let him do that by himself. 1 day. That’s all it took. That job damn near killed my Dad, and after I was yelled at for not stacking boxes correctly, that was it. I drove my heat stroked Father home, and started setting a course to a new job. I got back into tech support, in fact it was at that first job that I had left. I didn’t last there long, but it was much needed money. I kept jumping jobs, shooting for higher and higher pay, to the point where I’m at now. I’m able to take care of my parents. It’s still not the life I believe they deserve, but who says I’m finished. As I write this I’m embarking on a new journey. I don’t know where it will take me, but with what I’ve been through, I refuse to let anything break me again. The darkness I experienced, changed me on a level I didn’t think existed. So as I stated in the beginning of this, you’ll be seeing a lot of me from here on out. I’m not sure what I’ll be writing about, but I’ll be writing about something. Whether it’s where I’m at in the challenge, how I feel on any given day, or just the things that get to me. Here’s to the next 365 days and beyond.