It seems like it was yesterday when I found myself a brand new father. My little girl was still in diapers. My young family lived in a "less desirous" part of town.
We worked our asses off but no matter what, it felt like we were always just one step ahead of failure.
One day my wife asked me to go to the grocery store. We needed diapers and formula. It was my turn to go.
I glanced down at my daughter, she looked back up at me. Her diaper was sagging because the re-usable tape that held it up was wore out. She stretched out her arms to me, and with her huge brown eyes said, "Daddy I'm hungry."
My wife handed me the car keys, and before I could leave she said, "hold up", reached into her purse and handed me a wad of bills.
As she handed them over I realized that it was a roll of food stamps.
It was like a sucker punch to the gut.
...food stamps...
(Now to be clear, I'm not raggin' on government assistance. It was a necessity for us at that time.)
I sat in the driveway a minute, and next thing I knew I was crying. Hard. I looked at myself in the rearview mirror and all I saw looking back was a failure.
A failed husband...
A failed father...
A failed man...
In that moment I knew I had a choice.
Continue on that path, and hope that my luck would someday change.
Or go make my own damn luck.
Right then and there I made a decision that never again would anyone have to take care of my family...that I would never have to rely on anyone else to provide for us...and finally, in that moment I decided that I was going to blaze my own trail because I decided to...