10/02/2026
I don’t talk about this part of my life very often.
Growing up, stability wasn’t something I really knew.
My parents struggled with addiction. We were homeless more times than I can count. We stayed in shelters, churches, friends’ houses, friends of friends’ houses, and pretty much anywhere we could find a place to sleep.
There were times my dad was choosing between feeding his family and feeding his addiction.
As a kid, you don’t always understand what’s happening around you. You just learn how to survive it.
You learn how to adapt. You learn how to keep moving. You learn how to grow up faster than you probably should.
At one point during that time, I was also a resident at Child Crisis Arizona. The people there showed me kindness, safety, and care during a time in my life when I really needed it, and that is something I’ll always be grateful for.
But when I look back now, I think mostly about how different my life looks today.
I have a wife I love, two daughters I get to raise, a business I’m proud of, people I get to create with, and a life that younger me probably couldn’t have imagined.
A lot of who I am was built through those years.
Not because they were easy. They weren’t.
But because somewhere along the way, I decided that the circumstances I came from weren’t going to determine the life I built.
I’m not sharing this for sympathy.
I’m sharing it because sometimes people only see where you are now.
They don’t see everything it took to get there.
And maybe there’s someone out there right now who needs the reminder that where you start does not have to be where you finish.
Grateful for every person who showed up for me along the way, including the people at Child Crisis Arizona.
And even more grateful for the life I get to build from here.
