Welcome back! Hope this finds you all in good spirits. If any of you are new to the Show, this is GIANTS AMONGST US. Where we share in that unique Human experience. I'm picking up on a theme started a while back - "In Between The Stories." You can refer back to https://rss.com/podcasts/giants-amongst-us/859428/ (Episode 4) where I talk about the inspiration behind GIANTS AMONGST US.
Today, walk with me down memory lane. As I recall two "close calls", where things could of turned bad, but luckily, not. It's a few memories that I had while living in El Monte, California. A city about 15 miles East of Los Angeles, for anyone unfamiliar with the area.
First one happened when I was about 5 years old. While playing on top of the staircase, I fell and cracked my head open. Happened to chip my skull, and might of even knocked a few screws loose. But, the doctor stitched me right back up. Second incident, happened a few years later. I was in the 3rd grade. A kid from the same school, tried stabbing me. He was a year younger than me.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE.
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'Til
very soon,
PEACE!!
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I
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Is giant amongst us
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What's up welcome back to the show I
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Hope everybody's doing well. I hope you're feeling well. How's the weather been?
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What are you guys dealing with over there as for me in my neck of the woods?
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It's been rainy. It's been cloudy. It's been great. You know the sunshine is
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Almost like a distant fading memory
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But what I can say and I don't know how you feel about it, but I really
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Enjoy the changing of the seasons. You know when you get to see the leaves they turn that goldish yellow and reddish brown
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when they're blown off of the trees and laying across the
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pathway and the hiking trails
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Covering the soil that makes for a beautiful backdrop
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It's like you're right in the middle of a Bob Ross painting and for us
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What we live at it's only a hop jump and a skip away and bam
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We're in the bosom of Mother Earth and I love having that I love having access to it
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Well, we could just turn the corner get in the car drive there or we can walk there either way
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But to get away from the town to get away from traffic to get away from all that extra buzz
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And just frolic through nature
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Sometimes we see deers running across the tree line
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Other times there's donkeys we go check them out and see how they're doing
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At times we see the sheep listening to the birds chirp while that fresh
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Cool crisp air just splashes against our face
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So it's great to have my wife and I we make it a point often throughout the week to take our dog there
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And we can let her off the leash let her run around and we just enjoy
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Mother Earth
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Over the years and with age I'm becoming more and more appreciative of that. I mean it does something for us
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It recharges us it refreshes us it cleanses us even you know, that's where we break bread
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That's where we have our communion
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That's where we have our church
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So welcome to the show if this is your first time listening
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This is giants amongst us where we share in the unique human experience
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And shout out to everybody who was listening to this for the very first time a big hello to every
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Location every state every country every continent that that the show has found its way to
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Finland
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Switzerland
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Belgium Canada UK Brazil Mexico
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Nigeria I'm shouting all you guys out of course the US all over the US from top to bottom
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East to West hopefully it's resonated with some of you
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Hopefully you found value in it and if you have feel free to write us
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Let us know how you feel
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Let us know where you're listening from and you can even check out the website where you'll find all the past
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Guests that have shared their stories on giants amongst us and there you can share your thoughts and give feedback
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You can even leave a voice message if you like and you can also check us out on reddit where I'm pretty active
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So today
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I'm gonna pick up on a theme that I started on but I haven't really been
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Consistent with and that's the problem forgive me. I'm trying to be more consistent with this
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But the theme is in between the stories
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I already recorded a couple of these in the past you can browse through and find them on whichever
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Streaming platform it is that you listen to and one of them was me talking about the inspiration behind the show
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Today's gonna be a bit different
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I wanted to share with you all a couple of close calls that I had at a very young age
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I guess you could say some brushes with death and we're gonna call this one
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Memories of El Monte
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So if anybody's listening and they are unfamiliar with the place El Monte, that's a city
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That's about 15 minutes east of downtown Los Angeles in Southern California
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And that's where I was born. I was actually born in Monterey Park
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But lived in El Monte up until about eight years old or so and then we moved out of there
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But I wanted to share two stories with you the first one. I was about five years old
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I couldn't have been any more than five years old and we lived in an apartment complex
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And I have family that also lived nearby in another apartment complex and for this particular
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Situation my uncle was taking care of me
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So I was over at his place and like I said, I was about five years old a little crumb crusher
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I still had baby teeth if anybody's seen that movie or know the the children's storybook the jungle book
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Well, I was a spitting image of Mowgli a little small scrawny little thing looked just like him
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So imagine Mowgli playing on top of the staircase
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And so I'm up top in front of his doorstep at the very top of the staircase
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And there was a handrail and it ran from the bottom to the top just one handrail
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I believe at that time there were no bars in between or there may have been there may have been bars in between
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So I'm at the top playing by myself because my uncle's watching me and you know, I can't really go too far and
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Everybody's downstairs the kids are down there. They're playing jump rope. They're swinging from that handrail
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They're shooting marbles, you know, they're having a good old time and I'm from the top looking down
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Wishing I could be down there with them. And what do I start doing? You know kids. They're fearless
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There's not a care in the world. I may have been afraid of dirt at that time
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There used to cry when I would get dirty
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Mom I got torts I got torts on my clothes
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But for whatever reason I see the kids they're swinging from the handrail and so
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What do I do? I start doing the same thing, but from up top
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I'm swinging from the handrail or hanging from the handrail one of the two both hands
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gripped on that handrail
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Suspending myself up at the very top of the staircase from a two-story apartment complex
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And what do you know? I slip off the side and now I'm free falling from the top level
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down
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free falling
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And I remember seeing this man it was in slow motion, but I remember seeing this man
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He was running towards me. He was trying to catch me, but he didn't make it
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I hit the ground then I remember just feeling a lot of heat and fiery
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Sensation on my head. I mean I could only imagine the mess from the top level
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Boom I hit the concrete busted my head wide open then I remember I'm being carried up the stairs and still my head is hot
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I can't even say if I felt pain probably was in shock. I was I was a baby
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I was a kid then it's like the scene
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Fast-forward and I'm in the car now the passenger seat the sun is bright
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Or maybe it was that light that people say they see before they take that long walk
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But it was in the afternoon, so I'm pretty sure it was the sunlight hitting me directly
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Your mom who was driving me to the hospital, but of course if you're listening to me now, I made it
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I survived my dad was there. He said that he was able to see a chip on my skull
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So I chip my skull which probably
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Explains a little bit of why I am the way that I am
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Not always playing with a full deck of cars if you know what I mean
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No
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In the doctor said one of the things that saved me was this coffee pot that I landed on
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See back then the Folgers coffee they used to come in these tin cans
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And what people would do was cut the top of it fill it with soil and then they would plant
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And I guess I hit that if from what he said that broke my fall
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I don't know if he was able to see from the x-rays or that something did break my fall
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But from what he said had it not been from that my head would have split open like a watermelon
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You know thinking back I could still see that man running towards where I was falling and trying to catch me
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Maybe he even helped break my fall. I'm not too sure but I do remember he was running towards me
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And he was trying to catch me
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So that was a close call a couple of inches to the left couple inches to the right and that would have been curtains
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Five years old
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Imagine that my uncle is watching me my parents are away. I mean the
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Man just the feeling that my uncle probably had like this happened on my watch
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It wasn't his fault kids. They can be careless
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They can be reckless and they could be underneath your nose doing something and everything be okay
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And all it takes is a split second and things can get ugly real quick, but I made it
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I'm here today. So that was one and
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This other incident I was about eight years old in third grade and this was where we were living in our apartment complex
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So, you know just a little boy sitting in the living room
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I had my friend with me my grandmother was in the kitchen and she was cooking or cleaning or doing something
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But we're watching TV probably cartoons or wrestling
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Can't really say we're watching TV sitting on the couch and this boy comes up to the door and he's knocking on the door
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And he's asking for my brother. I tell him he's not here. He leaves
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Comes back a little later asking for my brother. I'm like he's not here and mind you this kid is probably my age
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No, he had to be about a year younger because my brother was a year younger than me. So he probably was seven years old
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I'm eight then finally he asked me to come outside. So I go outside both my friend and I
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We step outside. He has his bike laying on the ground and he has one hand behind his back
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And then as I step outside
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He takes his hand from behind his back and he has this knife a
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Seven year old boy. It was like a Rambo style blade and he lunges at me
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I jump back and
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somehow some way
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The knife came out of his hand and then it fell into this planner and in my friend
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I remember my friend he was saying now it's a fair fight. We're eight years old
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Seven and eight years old. This kid tries to lunge at me commando style with the knife
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So it comes out of his hand falls into the planner my grandmother
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She's in the kitchen and she hears the commotion. She comes out with a broomstick and she swings it out
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I
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Remember that he jumped on his bike took off. That was that I was almost hooked
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I was almost stabbed by a seven-year-old boy
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We're both in elementary school. So my dad gets home. He hears what happens and then come to find out
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This is somebody who's in the same class as my brother and I guess that day or the day before
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They got into a fight my brother beat him up. So he was coming back because he was angry. He was looking for some get back
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But he didn't he didn't want to fight him
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He wanted to stab him and if he couldn't get him he was he was gonna get one of us
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His brother which was me. So my dad had us in the car
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We drove to where he lived and I remember seeing a family and they're carrying boxes to a truck
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It looked like they were in the middle of moving his parents were there
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They looked like some young gang bangers. So the apple really didn't fall far from the tree
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And my dad got out of the car spoke with them and I remember he came back in the car and he was angry
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So I guess you know, they really didn't give us what their kid was doing if anything they probably encouraged it
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You know, he came home and may have told him what happened and they probably said you better get back over there and do something
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That's not strange. I've known of that happening. So I wouldn't put it past them
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But isn't that a shame they hate that you can give a kid your child the lack of love and support that spills into the streets
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And look what happened what could have happened. So that was a close call. I dodged the bullet
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Or I just missed the blade however you want to put it and who knows where that kid is now
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And I don't think it was too long after that
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We with the help of my grandmother
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We were able to get out of there my parents felt that that wasn't a good environment to raise your kids
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Let's just say a lot of drug use gang activity. It wasn't the best of neighborhoods. So two close calls at an early age
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Maybe you guys had your own
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rushes with death and experiences where it could have went one way, but luckily
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Thankfully it didn't and we're here today and I'm thankful to be here. There was a time in my life when I was very
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pessimistic I was like that character on Charlie Brown that would walk around in the clouds
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Were over his head and it was always raining on him everywhere. He went that cloud would follow him angry
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grumpy, but I've turned over a new leaf and
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Sometimes it's the simplest things that put a smile to my face and it brings joy to my heart
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Might even sound corny, but it's the truth
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So let's not forget to take time out of the day to take time out of the weekend
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Think back on everything that you do have not what you're missing and what you're in lack of but what you do
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Have and be grateful for it. Be thankful for it
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You guys thanks for tuning in wherever you're listening and however you're listening to this right now
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Appreciate you letting this play in
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Falling your eardrums today. Like I said, you can reach out to us through email by visiting the website
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by checking out Reddit, I've been pretty active on there these days and
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I hope you guys have a great week
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Stay tuned for more and before I check out
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If you like to be a part of the show and share your story or maybe a story of someone in your life
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That has impacted you in a positive way
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You could always reach out to me via email. I'd be happy to connect until next time and very
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soon
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Peace