TJ and I are both addicts and have seen a lot of hard shit, while learning some invaluable life lessons.

Comparing ourselves to ourselves, not others. Find our purpose, our personal truths, some blabber about striving, competing and the balance between inner freedom and gaining acceptance to fuel our dirty ego.

Keeping up with the Joneses, working towards our true potential versus getting snagged by our worst self. Learning life lessons through experimentation, righteousness, rigidness, self-sabotage, heroin, meth, coke, acid, pills, pot and alcohol.

Quitter, us as low-life piece of shit humans, homelessness, large L for Loser, and me as a high-school dropout. Staying comfortable in the pain and misery of life. Drug rehab and drug recovery. My 32-year clean time versus TJ’s 6-months clean.

Why do we use, why are we addicts? Putting forth our best effort to make a difference in the world. Being ok with rejection. We are free to be who we want to be, so why don’t we do it? Finding the courage and willingness to change.

Sporting the perm mullet, poetry, writing, meditation, mindfulness, finding community, finding our own personal path and all the glorious possibilities in front of us.

JT challenges us all with his statements, “Is there more to my existence than I’m living right now?” and that we are “Harming ourselves by making ourselves feel good in the short-term”.