"I Took Advantage of Freedom"
Mike Wilson came to Endicott College in order to share with us his life and how it went from partying right to jail. His life seems like it was a scripted movie, but is anything but a made up tale. He is a man in his mid 30’s who successfully created a program that helps unstable families reach a place in their life that is stress free and puts them back on the right path. He is an honorable man and a great role model for his kids. He has made his hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts proud and forever changed families lives for the better. Although Mike is an admirable guy, his life hasn't always been like this. Believe it or not, he was a trouble maker and was known for causing havoc. He got involved in the wrong crowd, and it went downhill from there. How does this happen, though? How does someone go from being a punk and a rebel to someone who turns broken households in to one that’s whole again?
To understand Mike’s unexpected revelation, you need to understand Mike’s life when he was younger. The reason why Mike first starting using drugs was purely for curiosity reasons. A 2010 study by the Addiction Research Institute shows that most people start using drugs around the ages of 13 and 14. This parallels Mike’s life exactly and his initial drug of choice was marijuana. Although many would argue that marijuana is not a gateway drug, in Mike’s case, it was. He quickly was on to more hard drugs that were much more lethal. For now, however, he stuck to smoking weed.
He became so enveloped with this hobby that he even started selling it. He would spend hours a day researching better ways to sell marijuana and acquire a higher profit. This is where the term “pothead” comes in. It is someone who only cares about getting high and believes smoking marijuana is the most enjoyable thing ever. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but that’s their reality. Maybe if drug dealers put the amount of time and effort into something more productive, they would be able to have a successful (and legal) career.
If a person spends 5 hours a day doing weed relating things (smoking, selling, etc.) that is equivalent to 1680 hours a year. That is an incredibly large amount of time being wasted smoking and dealing. And to make money, you have to spend money first. This is exactly where Mike ran into a problem. He needed money to buy the weed he was “selling.” But Mike was smoking a majority of the weed he was suppose to be selling. At this point, he was wasting time and spending more money than he actually had.
He did not seem to care, though. He embraced this lifestyle to the fullest. He described dressing the part with clothes that were way to big for him and also having an attitude that fit the part.
At the age of 16, Mike decided he needed drugs that were more intense, as mentioned before. He decided to smoke crack and instantly fell in love. Knowing Mike’s previous addictive tendencies, it comes as no surprise that he fell in love with crack. Problem #2? Money-once again. Crack is much more expensive and Mike was already struggling to support his marijuana habit. His solution to this problem shocked the whole crowd at the event. He proceeded to tell us that his grandmother had a jar with a bundle of money in it. He did not know why she had it or what is was for, but that did not stop him from frequently stealing a few hundred dollar bills every now and then.
One day, he actually got caught stealing from his grandmother by none other than his stepfather. This turned into a yelling match that quickly escalated into a physical altercation. Before Mike knew it, he woke up in the hospital with handcuffs on. Right out of the hospital, he was sent to a living facility which helped people deal with their drug addiction. But all he was doing there was selling to other patients and continuing to use drugs.
This stubborn behavior demonstrates how difficult it is to quit taking drugs. Throwing someone into a treatment center and hoping for the best rarely works. The “revolving door” reference plays into this situation. People enter treatment, get clean for a short amount of time, then leave treatment. Quickly after, however, they are right back in the doors because they relapsed. The reason is because either the drug abuser does not think they have a problem, or they do not want to get clean. Mike, at this point, did not want to be sober and it will have to be his decision whether or not he wants to change.
After sleepless nights from his family members in Massachusetts, they all decided to cut him off and no longer help him. He became the “wandering homeless kid” and had no friends or family to help him. His father constantly would send him money so he can take a bus to Maine, (which is where he lived) to start a brand new, clean life. After multiple attempts, Mike finally took his father up on his offer and took all of his belonging to Maine. He was offered a house in back of his fathers, but soon the police kicked down his doors due to trouble he got in.
Now, Mike took his trouble-behavior to the residents of Massachusetts to Maine. He was tormenting all of Portland and established a group of “friends” who all sold drugs. The stories he then told us were unheard of. One, in particular, is so memorable that it almost sounds fabricated; it is just too shocking to believe. He described the situation as him and a few other guys getting high in a room. This one time, however, he woke up in an ally with nothing but the clothes on his backs. His “friends” took all of his money and drugs and left him for dead. But wait, I did not get to the shocking part yet. After Mike regained consciousness, he walked all the way back to his “friends” house and asked if he could come back into their circle. They agreed and gave him all of his stuff back.
This demonstrates how the mentality of a drug addict does not parallel with that of a sober mind. No one would go back to their “friends” house who have proved to be disloyal, let alone even be in that situation in the first place. This pattern continued for a while until he met his girlfriend, who is now the mother of his children.
You probably expect me to tell you that he met this amazing woman who got him clean and changed his life. Wrong. They used heroin together, and this seemed to be like the only thing they had in common at the time. His house, however, got raided and he was thrown into jail.
After jail, Mike’s life was still not on the right track. He was 25 and his girlfriend had a baby. He had a child, a girlfriend, and no job. He was in between a rock and a hard place and had no way to make ends meet. His solution was to sell the majority of his drugs and use the profit to open up his own tanning salon/body building supplement store. A combination of no business skills and little effort ended in him losing the business and resorting to living in a garage.
Over the course of a few months, he hit rock bottom. Because of previous restraining orders, he was no longer able to be around kids, including his son. He battled with depression and attempted suicide but was “too weak” to go through with it. He was at an all time low and there was no coming out of the state he was in.
The revolving door reference should really be used for going to jail. People serve their time, but land right back where they started. Mike went back to jail for 6 months, yet seemed to “embrace this lifestyle” just like he embraced the lifestyle of a pothead in his earlier years.
Mike finally felt right at home. He was easily accepted, had a place to sleep, and food to eat. This mentality faded quickly once he started to think about his son. He couldn't stop thinking about him getting bullied at school because of who his father was. He just could not stand to think that his son had to pay for his mistakes.
This revelation saved Mike’s life. He came up with an idea to start a nonprofit organization that offered services to those in needs. He asked his lawyer to suggest this to the judge in order for his sentence to be suspended. His lawyer, shockingly, denied his request. She claimed that the judge would never go for the plead and they would look at him as if he were crazy.
Long story short, the judge (for whatever reason) agreed to give him one last chance. He started this organization and helped so many families that the community was thoroughly impressed. He received generous donations and his rent was even paid for a year. Mike has been clean ever since and his non profit organization, known as Renewed Hope Project, helped hundred of families.
The moral of the story is that life is full of opportunities and you can change whenever you choose. Mike was a punk teenager with a bad attitude, and was not afraid to let anybody know. He did not let this define the rest of his life, however. He turned his entire life around and started helping people who truly needed it. If one sets their mind to something, they can accomplish anything; no matter how far fetched it may seem.
Mike Wilson