Success Stories: Michael R. (STRIVE San Diego, Second Chance)

	Michael has progressed from a client and graduate to become a staff member and program trainer. (Photo: Vincent Knakal)

Michael planned to join the army someday. He was winning trophies in karate and had a 3.5 GPA in school. But he was 14 when his stepfather went to jail, and suddenly, at that young age, Michael became "the man of the house." For the next 10 years, he dealt drugs, ran an escort service, became a heavy drug user, had 2 kids, and got into gangs, where he was stabbed and shot. Constantly in and out of jail, his plans for the future evaporated.

When he was 25, Michael served a long prison sentence for selling crystal meth and being armed with a handgun. Just before his release on parole, he learned about STRIVE and its programs specifically geared to ex-offenders. He was eager to turn his life around. "I was tired of going in and out of jail, tired of not being in my daughters’ lives." Michael learned about discipline, patience, and responsibility in his classes at STRIVE. "There’s more to life than the fast life. It doesn’t hurt to be a law-abiding citizen."

Within a week of completing the program, Michael was employed at PETCO Park. Because of his life experiences and outstanding integrity, it soon became clear that he would be an exceptional trainer at Second Chance, the San Diego agency that offers the STRIVE program. He leapt at the opportunity to share the tools of recovery with other people stuck in the same self-destructive cycle that had swallowed him. "It's a wonderful gift."

Michael's daughters are back in his life, and he is engaged to a woman he met in the program. He's on his way to purchasing a house, and is hoping to get back into karate, if he can find the time. Since his childhood, Michael had been destined to make great achievements in his life. It took his participation in STRIVE, and all the hard work he put into it, to ensure that those achievements, finally, were on his record in indelible ink.

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