Think about where/who you were when you first came to SW

Now think about how far you might've come since then... How much have you changed?
You don't have to read the rest of this just think about that.

Me, I used to tell occasional stories like I do now, except back then it wasn't coming from a place of reflection. I was still in the middle of it during the times I talked about it.

I talked about putting a guy in the hospital for stealing my little brothers bike once. I talked about beating a guy up in front of his son until his son's screaming stopped me. I talked about beating a guy up for saying he hated my dog then running from the cops & doing waaay too many drugs. Once I even talked about putting a knife to a dudes throat after he tried to rob my mom until he realized who she was. I didn't cut him I only scared him a bit 🤷

Theres more but that was years ago when I told all those stories. I wrote about them the same night, or the night after it was all happening. I remember when people would comment on them, it went one of two ways. Either they wished me well & were hopeful for me... or they'd hate me & tell me that I was promoting drugs & violence too much. I wasn't very liked back then 😐

I was never really here to promote drugs or violence I was mainly just venting or just talking about things I couldn't in my normal life. Somehow writing helps me sort things out in my head.
The difference between now & back then, is now when I talk about my life I'm reflecting & learning from it. Whereas back then, I wasn't really learning yet, I was still in the middle of it all. I probably just seemed like a dumbass kid who was throwing life away & didn't give a shit. Which I was 🤷

I guess sometimes we gotta remind ourselves how far we've come. I always feel like I'm behind or like I haven't accomplished anything. But back in 2016/17, I was still in the streets. I couldn't see myself getting away from all that. I've accomplished a lot since then, done things I never thought I'd do, both good & bad. I've let people down at times, but I also made people proud of me. I've made myself proud 🙏 I've done a little of everything & nowadays all I wanna do is understand my mistakes & figure myself out. Because that's how we grow 🌻

I've hurt a lot of people in my life & sometimes I feel like I don't deserve all the chances I've had... I feel like I didn't even deserve to survive sometimes but I'm grateful I'm still around.

As long as we're still around we still have a chance