I immediately started crying and could not stop. This was the first time where I recognized someone else in the world has/had a parent with cancer. This was the first time I felt not alone.

A thought occurred to me, to what end? Why was I actually doing all these things? I saw how fast I had gone from my wrestling season being over right into trying to achieve the next thing. If I couldn’t be perfect in that area, I might as well go be perfect somewhere else right? For the first time, I realized that there was no satisfaction in any of those things I had been trying so hard to achieve. I finally got everything I wanted. Yet still, there was something lacking in me.

was a corpse when I first came to Hard as Nails. He then added that I had gained JOY since being here. The staff and my fellow teammates could see a change in me that had taken place in the past six to seven months. They saw that I had joy.

My math teacher was a gorgeous, smart, tall woman. She was everything I wanted to be. Looking back, I realized I didn’t desire to be like her because of her looks or skills; it was her hope and how she knew she was loved; it was a hope I didn’t have and a love I thought I didn’t deserve.

I slipped into this dangerous cycle of maintaining control and creating future plans for myself. I allowed myself to continuously daydream and visualize about my future timeline which was nonexistent in that moment… I was pretty confident in the plans I had made, but something just felt a little off. Deep in my heart, I knew something just wasn’t right.

Let’s be real, life isn’t supposed to be easy, and we are supposed to be challenged and face many trials almost every single day. Having those struggles in our life is what makes us stronger, because of that fight we go through to face them.

There have been times in my life when I am overcome with a sense that I am on holy ground. My heart is moved with a deep sense of the presence and nearness of our Lord and in my heart I hear an echo of the same words God…

Once there was a lucky man. Partially lucky because he had great faith, and partially because he was Irish. However, his story starts out with not-so-lucky beginnings…

Where was my truth coming from? How could I ask hundreds of people I would meet to read the bible before bed and before breakfast if I wasn’t actively doing that?