At what point did you turn it around?

[Ibleedblue13]

*Thought this was roadside please move*

So i've been thinking about this a lot lately, and in the last four years I have completely turned my life around and haven't really taken the time to even think about it until recently. Six years ago I had a full scholarship as a division one athlete. The summer before I left for school our house that my dad had built himself burned completely to the ground, I spent the summer living with different friends and headed off to school. Halfway through my first semester I got jumped in downtown Chicago, suffered a TBI and was forced to medically withdraw to go home and recover. At that point my parents were in a tiny rental and money was tight since they still hadn't settled with insurance.

Within three months of moving home our family blew up and I couldn't take everyone screaming all day everyday. My dad and I got into it one day, a few windows got broken and they kicked me out. I threw everything I had into my 200,000 mile Jeep Cherokee and took off. Within a week they begged me to come home but my brain was still so screwed up from the TBI and I was still so mad that I refused, and we pretty much stopped talking completely. The next year and a half was a complete waste of my life, I was homeless staying with friends when possible and other nights practically freezing to death in my Jeep during the winter. I got harassed by cops nightly while I was trying to sleep and it didn't look like things could get much worse. A lot of my "friends" disappeared when I was that low and one night I was trying to fall asleep in my trunk when I just said "**** it, cut this shit out and ****ing make something of yourself".

I'm proud to say that i'm now two semesters away from graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA in Finance, have been dating the love of my life for almost two years, and have some incredible job opportunities awaiting me after graduation. I haven't taken a semester off since i've been back and have been taking 6 or 7 classes while working 30+ hours a week.

I want to hear your stories as well, when did you finally just say "**** it" and turned your life around?

 

[Planter]

well...it started after I was humbled with an arrest and my face plastered in the news for some stupid bs when I was college. After that, I began what has become a crazy, wonderful, terrible, awful, horrible, incredible journey (yes all those emotions at once).

I got straightened up, graduated college, moved to Denver from Tennessee, couldn't find work in my degree field, so I did what I do best and improvised and got my Class A CDL and began driving a big truck for a living. 6 months away from finishing the journey and getting on with the rest of my life.

After I payoff my student loans, it's off to Law School for 3 years. Then I want to run my own practice here in Colorado and represent single dad's rights, people like me, and 2nd Amendment Law rights as my main focuses. I'd also like to do some pro bono work as well.

I am a much more focused, goal oriented, ambitious person with a very good balance to my life for a change. Definitely have turned a corner.

 

[CompOrange04GT]

Woke up covered in my own blood and cocaine

 

[TK Doom]

OP, great post. What happened between the second and third paragraph that made it all happen?

 

[KingBlack]

well...it started after i was humbled with an arrest and my face plastered in the news for some stupid bs when i was college. After that, i began what has become a crazy, wonderful, terrible, awful, horrible, incredible journey (yes all those emotions at once).

I got straightened up, graduated college, moved to denver from tennessee, couldn't find work in my degree field, so i did what i do best and improvised and got my class a cdl and began driving a big truck for a living. 6 months away from finishing the journey and getting on with the rest of my life.

After i payoff my student loans, it's off to law school for 3 years. Then i want to run my own practice here in colorado and represent single dad's rights, people like me, and 2nd amendment law rights as my main focuses. I'd also like to do some pro bono work as well.

I am a much more focused, goal oriented, ambitious person with a very good balance to my life for a change. Definitely have turned a corner.

are you going to be a civil rights lawyer?

 

[Planter]

are you going to be a civil rights lawyer?

i have no idea right now. just taking it one day at a time and working towards goals.

 

[Panic661]

Still working on turning it around. I'm in my mid-late twenties. Started a great career right out of highschool, worked the job as an apprentice up until I turned 21, ****ed up one late night and got into some legal trouble. Lost my job, wasn't smart enough to save money, and had no direction. Worked some odd jobs for a couple of years before finally getting my act together and realizing I needed to do something with my life.

Landed a decent position with a telecommunications company about two years ago, got married. Just had our first child two weeks ago. I'm taking some courses that the company pays for to hopefully advance some more within the company. Calmed the hell down and stopped blowing money on pointless crap.

Trying to rebuild my credit, pay off debts that I racked up when I was out of work, and hopefully in a year I'll be able to buy my own home instead of renting.

 

[Planter]

Still working on turning it around. I'm in my mid-late twenties. Started a great career right out of highschool, worked the job as an apprentice up until I turned 21, ****ed up one late night and got into some legal trouble. Lost my job, wasn't smart enough to save money, and had no direction. Worked some odd jobs for a couple of years before finally getting my act together and realizing I needed to do something with my life.

Landed a decent position with a telecommunications company about two years ago, got married. Just had our first child two weeks ago. I'm taking some courses that the company pays for to hopefully advance some more within the company. Calmed the hell down and stopped blowing money on pointless crap.

Trying to rebuild my credit, pay off debts that I racked up when I was out of work, and hopefully in a year I'll be able to buy my own home instead of renting.

attaboy. keep up the good work! :beer:

 

[Regulars520]

:beer:

 

[DriftwoodSVT]

Almost 10 years ago I decided if I wanted to have a successful career I needed to leave my home town. I left my small town farm/ag job in Iowa and moved to Austin, TX to work for the Texas Legislature.

I can't imagine what life would have been like had I not taken that chance. I wouldn't have met my wife, and I'd still be working for chump change and be miserable.

 

[Blk04L]

Eh, not as bad as the OP's but one day in college I just realized I was just spinning my wheels, cut out the negative/party people in my life, and just focus on school(just study civil and drop mechanical).

It was like a night and day difference all of a sudden. Like a light switch turned on.

 

[Branhammer]

I used to drink and drive all the time. At least once or twice a week. I even street raced drunk a few times. I probably should be dead and back then maybe even deserved to be. I had a bachelors back then and I was still a dumbass. Joining the military turned things around for me. I needed more discipline and the fear of ruining my career helped. Haven't driven even remotely buzzed since I joined back in 2008.

 

[32ValveRom]

Still waiting on my time

 

[Ibleedblue13]

OP, great post. What happened between the second and third paragraph that made it all happen?

It was the middle of the Winter and I was basically just freezing to death every night. I had a $20 sleeping bag from Wal Mart and the heat had broken in my Jeep back in November. I called an old friend of mine from when I had caddied back in high school and it just so happened that the club he was working at in Florida needed caddies. Before the job was even 100% mine I had emptied my bank account ($1100ish) and hopped on 95 South. I quite literally never looked back.

Food and gas on the way down chewed up about $550 and the rest was used on my first months rent in someone's spare bedroom that I found on Craigslist. I spent the rest of the season at the club looping as many times as I could and finding every way possible that I could to save money. By that point I had a solid nest egg and started to develop an academic plan for myself. Before this happened I was a good student, but honestly never applied myself and took school for granted. I would sit in bed at night after caddying just staring at the course list for my local community college, just imagining how great it would be to have another chance. I took the long way home from work every Friday so I could drive past campus and I just kept picturing myself as a student again.

The following Spring I was finally comfortable enough financially to start back and honestly my first day of school was the most surreal experience of my life, as cheesy as that sounds. Before school work always seemed like a headache, and now I get excited to study when I get home from work at night, especially now that I see light at the end of the tunnel. What I went through has completely changed me, and i'm not sure how, but it has. I say I don't know only because I haven't thought about what happened since I started back, the future just looks too promising for me to spend any time at all dwelling on the past. This thread is the first time I've talked about any of this in over a year.

Best part of it all is on my very first day at Palm Beach State I met my now girlfriend who I can truly say is the one for me after 1 1/2 years.

 

[Ibleedblue13]

I used to drink and drive all the time. At least once or twice a week. I even street raced drunk a few times. I probably should be dead and back then maybe even deserved to be. I had a bachelors back then and I was still a dumbass. Joining the military turned things around for me. I needed more discipline and the fear of ruining my career helped. Haven't driven even remotely buzzed since I joined back in 2008.

I unfortunately made the same mistake far too often back in high school and in retrospect I am also lucky that I never killed anyone or myself. I haven't done it since my whole ordeal and if I go out anywhere now we use a DD or Uber. My friends don't understand it but i've worked too hard to get to where i'm at to throw it all away, or even worse, ruin someone else's life. Congrats on the success man :beer:

 

[CompOrange04GT]

**** bitches get money

Amirite?

 

[black4vcobra]

*Thought this was roadside please move*

So i've been thinking about this a lot lately, and in the last four years I have completely turned my life around and haven't really taken the time to even think about it until recently. Six years ago I had a full scholarship as a division one athlete. The summer before I left for school our house that my dad had built himself burned completely to the ground, I spent the summer living with different friends and headed off to school. Halfway through my first semester I got jumped in downtown Chicago, suffered a TBI and was forced to medically withdraw to go home and recover. At that point my parents were in a tiny rental and money was tight since they still hadn't settled with insurance.

Within three months of moving home our family blew up and I couldn't take everyone screaming all day everyday. My dad and I got into it one day, a few windows got broken and they kicked me out. I threw everything I had into my 200,000 mile Jeep Cherokee and took off. Within a week they begged me to come home but my brain was still so screwed up from the TBI and I was still so mad that I refused, and we pretty much stopped talking completely. The next year and a half was a complete waste of my life, I was homeless staying with friends when possible and other nights practically freezing to death in my Jeep during the winter. I got harassed by cops nightly while I was trying to sleep and it didn't look like things could get much worse. A lot of my "friends" disappeared when I was that low and one night I was trying to fall asleep in my trunk when I just said "**** it, cut this shit out and ****ing make something of yourself".

I'm proud to say that i'm now two semesters away from graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA in Finance, have been dating the love of my life for almost two years, and have some incredible job opportunities awaiting me after graduation. I haven't taken a semester off since i've been back and have been taking 6 or 7 classes while working 30+ hours a week.

I want to hear your stories as well, when did you finally just say "**** it" and turned your life around?

If you can/will talk about it, what happened when you got jumped? Was it random? Did the police arrest the guys?

 

[hoamskilet]

Fortunately have been able to pretty well keep my shit together my whole life.

Interesting reading your guys stories though. Hats off to those that have been able to turn it around

 

[Torch10th]

Good to hear the back on track stories. It takes a lot of courage to get back on track when it's easy to make excuses.

Aside from buying too many cars with an abundance of credit, I've lead a fairly straight arrow life. I don't have a story like this to tell, except when it comes to credit utilization. Lots of people have trouble with that, but it's not on the same level as the OP and other's stories of true hardship.

 

[FIVEHOE]

My turning point happened almost a year ago. Had a degree, was still working the same shit that I was during college (property management). No one would hire me because I didn't have direct experience, wasn't a minority/woman, didn't have a top tier GPA or graduated in top % of my class so months were spent without a call or job prospect.

I finally got my foot in the door and kickstarted my career a little over a year ago. First job gained me a ton of experience that you just can't get from a classroom. I was incredibly lucky too, that in the sense I was able to cross train with different departments of IT. On top of that, I received a promotion (something I never got in my 4 years of property management) within 6 months. I continue to cross train between SQL/database department and Salesforce admin, both of which are heavily desired and pay nicely.

It's nice to finally have a job where you aren't constantly bitching about how it sucks and watching the clock, waiting until the day to be over. It's also nice to be recognized for hard work and effort after years of little to no appreciation. Also feels nice to have finally started my career, which will only continue to grow from here