Just a slice of the pie

In 2016 me and my girlfriend left our hometown to set out on a journey. We faced Many struggles even before leaving.

The landlord of my building illegally evicted me and then turned around and called the police and filed a police report of breaking and entering on me. I would later find out a warrant was issued for my arrest with no paperwork to prove different. We left Michigan on a greyhound bus and set out on a journey that would forever change our life’s, with no money, no shelter, and no job our family completely turned their backs on us. Once we arrived in Tennessee we immediately started to get to work. Looking for jobs, calling shelters, missions and anything we could do to progress forward.

Everywhere we turned we heard no, no one gave us a chance or opportunity. I found a couple part time jobs and on the first day of work the police showed up and arrested me. I would head to the county jail my first week in Tennessee. My girlfriends mother was there to pick her up and take her back to Michigan.

I stayed in the county jail total of 35 days before I was released. Only reason I was released was because Michigan wasn’t going to extradite me. The judge signed off.

Sitting back at square one with no food or shelter I returned to the court house and slept under the pillars in the above photo. It wasn’t long before I picked up another job for a local moving company. Talk about hard work! At least three jobs a day 6 days a week. During that time I started saving some money and soon after my girlfriend would rejoin me. She was four months pregnant at this time (we found out before we left Michigan). 3 months into our progress we had slept every night in behind those pillars till one day I started sleeping in the back of the moving truck. A month later one of my co workers let me stay with his as I told him what was going on in my life. Not once have I made this a pity party. When you are focused and determined you can do what is needed to advance forward. And that’s what we did. We got married in Tennessee what a great day it was for the two of us. Our own little family with the passion and purpose to continue moving forward at a snail pace. Approximately four months later It was the day of the Super Bowl I remember. I’m not one to really follow sports. We figured what I great opportunity to go to a buffet. When we returned home the guy That we were staying with just packed his stuff and left!

We knew it was about to get even tougher. I reached out to the landlord to see if we could possibly take over his lease and he told us no! We had to leave. I said we had been staying there for 30 days and my wife was about to have the baby soon. The landlord called me back and offered us a one bedroom apartment to get out of his house. We needed a deposit and first month rent which we knew we could cover. Two days before the baby was born we now had shelter. The place was full of roaches and horrible. I brought this up to the landlord and his additude was you brought them. Either deal with it or move.

I continued to move forward and got a few promotions over the next year the moving company flew me out to Texas for training in sales the incompe cap was much higher and was what we needed to get to further to progress our future. I bought my wife a plane ticket and our son went with. We were off to a brighter future. So we had thought.

A week into my training. I got called into the office and to my surprise they asked where my drug test sheet was which was negative results and asked about the outstanding warrant for the breaking and entering and was fired once I explained what had happened. They walked me off the premises and flown back to our apartment in Tennessee. With no job again!!

I would take a bunch of low paying jobs to get us by. Then one day working for a temp service they let all three of us go for traveling back and forth between two warehouses in our own vehicles and that was against company policy. So the temp company terminated the contract.

At this point I was ready to just give up and head back to Michigan. A few days later a gentleman called me up and asked if I could do the same job the temp company had us do but by myself for 2500. For one week worth of work, I spoke with my wife and we agreed I would complete the task. During this time my wife would find out she was pregnant with our second child. I had to really fake it to make it and act like I really knew what I was doing. The JIT plant I was in was thinking I was a quality engineer. So I listened and watched what other PQE and asking questions and hope my cover wasn’t blown. I must of did something correct and completed the task, I worked the entire week and at the end of the week the gentleman would Walmart to Walmart the cash. It would put us in a position to give it another go. So we talked to the slumlord and scored a two bedroom, transferring the deposit and was only 100. More a month. This place didn’t have no roaches but just as disgusting as the first place but it was a step forward that we could deal with.

That weekend the gentleman would call me again and asked if I would run the same deal this time find one employee to help complete the trailer. I agreed and again another 2500. For each of us. The gentleman (James) would hire me on full time and make me a permanent resident of the JIT plant. 3 years later I am still with the company. I know am a Quality engineer with four launches under my belt.

In this time I rebuilt my credit which I had probably under a 500 score, got my first ever contracted phone, Me and my wife purchased a 200,000 home on five acres of land.

Now we have 8 chickens, a pig, and a few ducks. Waiting to coninue our journey and progress. With so much more to come. You can do anything in this lifetime. If you want the whole pie, you just got to start with a slice.