WEBVTT - Mind Over Matter with Joshua Richey 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.600 Welcome to the Good Stuff. I'm Jacob Chick and I'm 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:21.800 joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:24.840 Jake is a third generation combat Marine and I'm a 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:28.640 gold Star granddaughter. We work together to serve military veterans, 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:32.280 first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and their families with mental 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.959 and emotional wellness through traditional and non traditional therapy. At 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:37.640 One Tribe Foundation. 0:00:38.080 --> 0:00:40.320 We believe everyone has a story to tell, not only 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:42.800 about the peaks, but also the valleys they've been through 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:44.160 to get them to where they are today. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.360 Each week, we invite a guest to tell us their story, 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:49.840 to share with us the lessons they've learned that shaped 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:51.720 who they are and what they're doing to pay it 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:52.960 forward and give back. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.279 Our mission with this show is to dig deep into 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:57.560 our guest journey so that we can celebrate the hope 0:00:57.600 --> 0:00:59.240 and inspiration their story. 0:00:59.000 --> 0:00:59.600 Has to offer. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:01.160 Thrilled you're joining. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.560 Us again, Welcome to the Good Stuff. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.560 We are so excited about today's episode. Our friend Joshua 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.160 Ritchie is a mindset coach and motivational speaker. He's a 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.280 former professional football player and works with merging veterans and players. 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.479 It's an organization that focuses on bringing veterans and former 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.319 professional sports players together. 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.880 Joshua is here to tell his story of survival, how 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.679 he survived street violence as a child, how he survived 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.200 the shooting as a young man, how he survived the 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.320 death of his dream of making it in the NFL, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.160 and how he survived the devastation of a severe gambling addiction. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.399 And now he's here with us as a living, breathing 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.520 example of what it means to thrive. 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.080 This is truly my brother from another mother, and his 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.960 story is raw strap in It's about the get ball beat. 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.280 I am so excited to dive into this conversation. This 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.280 is one like we've never had here on the good stuff. 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.040 Joshua Richie, thank you so much for joining us. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:04.960 Thank you for inviting me. I'm excited. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:06.400 Hey, we're honored to have you. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:07.160 This is going to be. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:11.000 A great perspective food for people. Let's do it. 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.200 Tell us about where you came from and what your 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:15.080 childhood was like. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.120 I was born and raised in Aerina, Oklahoma, little country 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.000 town about fifteen twenty miles west of Oklahoma City. And 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.919 my mom she was amazing, still is amazing to this day. 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.880 But six weeks before she had me. A month before 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:34.160 her vacation pay, she was fired due to racism, and 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:36.560 my mom didn't know what to do. She was struggling, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.600 I'm about to have a child. What do I do? Yeah, 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:43.320 she became stressed in me and the womb. I received 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.400 that and my mom was severely stressed. Wasn't going to 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:48.360 have any money, what she was going to do? She 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.960 was about to have a baby. Yep, So now she's stressed. 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:55.680 I'm stressed. So I developed asthma from that seizures. So 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:57.400 all these things were happening to me, was going on 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.000 with me because of my mom was stressed because of 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:01.920 what was going on out side, and I received it 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:06.120 on the inside. And so that's how it started in 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:06.560 the womb. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.560 So you're here by the grace of God absolutely, So 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.200 tell us about your upbringing. What was it like growing 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:16.000 up in that home? 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.480 It was definitely a challenge. No father present at all. Ever, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.360 my mom was doing the best she could to bring 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.240 me and my sister up and some things that she 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.360 had to do to sacrifice her life. And she told me, 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:30.919 she said, son, I never wanted to be on welfare, 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.400 never wanted to do that. I wanted to work for 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.680 my money. But she was forced to be on wearefare 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.080 because she was fired. And when she got on the welfare, 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:46.600 now it seemed like life was happening to us and 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:49.360 not for us. Sometimes she would have to do things 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.600 that she didn't want to do, and sometime we got 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:53.040 to the point where she said, son, you know, I 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.720 just had to sell myself because I wanted to provide 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.680 for my children. And I would see she never knew 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.200 that I was noticing this stuff, but I used to 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.080 see like old rich white man coming into the house 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:10.680 and boom, they relieve I would see this and taking 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.240 that on in that whole process, not having a father, 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.560 not having a male figure in the household, not teaching 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.559 me how to become a man and what it looks 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:22.480 like to be a man. My mom did the best 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.680 she could try to raise me. She taught me streets. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:26.599 He wanted me to learn streets. Who wanted me to 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.479 be a PhD In streets? She did that. Yeah, And 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.000 that's the one thing she said, You're gonna low streets. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.000 You're gonna know how to live, survive, You're gonna know 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.760 how to thrive. You're gonna know how to be the 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:38.560 best person you can. 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.440 Be what does that mean. She taught you how to 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:41.160 know streets. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:42.760 So she would bring me out to the block. We 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:44.400 called it the block in the hood. She would bring 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.040 me out to the block. She would let me see 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:48.159 the violence. She would let me see the drugs and alcohol. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:50.360 She would let me see all of that. And she 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.520 showed me and she said, well, if you in this situation, son, 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:55.520 this is what is gonna happen. If you're over here 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:57.760 in this situation, this is gonna happen. If you're here, 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.159 this is gonna happen. So I got to see drugs, 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.120 I got to see alcohol, I got to see prostitution, 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.520 I got to see gains, violence, I got to see 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.360 all that. So at three years old, I was here 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.240 by a car. My mom was having a rum and 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.960 cell and my ball went out in the street and 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:13.320 I ran out there in the street to get my 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.760 ball and booming car hits me. Now the police comes 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.880 and the police and my mom take me to the hospital. 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.960 At this point, my mom was like, diah forms, you 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.240 didn't know what was going on. And the doctor had 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.800 put me in like freezing ice water. My grandma was 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.440 there was like the think's going on? What is this. 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.200 She snatches me out of the ice water. They take 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.320 me to Oklahoma City to a specialist. The specialist was 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.520 discovered that I had seizures from the car from the 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.479 car hitting me, and he gave me fema barbatah. But 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.559 if you're aware of what fema barbatah does, it slows 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.040 your brain down. And so my mom was noticing changes 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.320 in me and she took me off of it. And 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:58.560 the doctor said, never tell a junkie that your son 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.000 is on fema barbaitah. My mom was like what she said, 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:03.920 because I junk it would probably kill you for it. 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:05.000 Wow. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:07.640 And so my mom was like, that's it, it's over, 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.560 no more of that. Yeah, So she took me off 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.960 of it. I was a special A class from second 0:06:13.000 --> 0:06:15.400 grade through the twelfth grade. So I thought I was dumb. 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.320 I thought it was stupid. I didn't think I was smart, 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.159 had low self esteem, I was insecure, didn't love myself, 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:22.719 didn't like me. 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:23.400 Yeah. 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:26.279 So that was a life that I lived. No father. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.760 My mom was emotionally sometimes abusive to me and my 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.600 sister mentally abusive. She whooped us, we got whoopings, all 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.960 those things. I thought it were good. I thought I'd 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.400 come out great, but not knowing what it was doing 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.760 to my subconscious. In my mindset, I was suppressing a 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:46.760 lot of feelings. So then I would go to school 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.480 and I would act it out. I'm doing quotation marks. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.520 I would act out. But it wasn't a behavior problem. 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.479 It was a relationship problem. And when I realized that 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.800 and my mom started to open up tell me things, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:02.560 I knew exactly what it. 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.520 Was, even at a young age. 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.680 Even at a young age, so at seven years old, 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.800 almost drowning the pool. The guy was dunking me, I thought, 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:13.280 and then when you go to the pool, the older 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:14.080 guys to dunk you. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.520 Oh yeah, horse playing, yeah, playing chicken. 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.400 But I told him, I said I can't swim. He 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.120 thought I was just playing. I didn't want to be dunked, 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.640 and he dunked me. So one of my friends run 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.000 up the stairs and go get my mom, and my 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:26.520 mom would come yelling down the thing you be able 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.680 to get my baby out of that water. To this day, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:32.040 I have no understanding, no recollection of what happened. How 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:34.880 long I was in the water, I don't have no clue. 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.840 But as my mom was doing that, his mom came 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:43.280 out she said, baby gidding. I'm sorry, but I can't 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.520 do anything with him. He killed his toward sister, same 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:47.120 exact way. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:49.760 Wow, he drowned. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.360 Her drownder, same exact way, same thing, And so my 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.920 mom was like WHOA. Three weeks before that, my mom 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.360 picked us up from my grandmother's house and o'c clomb City. 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.800 We're going to the gas station and my mama was 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:05.960 inside the store. Me and my sister was in that window. 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.200 We're seven years old. We're in the window, we're looking 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:11.360 for her and waiting on her, and a guy just 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.320 comes and blows the guy's brains down. We see the 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:18.080 brains just come. So my mama's in the door in 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.840 the class light, waving us get down, get down. I'm 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.679 trying to pull my sister down now at this point, 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.760 she's not trying to come down, but I'm down on 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.720 the floor now and I'm trying to pull my sister down. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.800 I'm trying to get her down, and all I can 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.120 just think of, like, man, what is this guy gonna 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.640 do to my mom? So my mama's just like here 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.839 in the head, like stuck and just looking and the 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:43.679 god walks by does nothing. Then we leave, We go 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.160 to the back to our house, and soon as we 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.800 get to there, a lady comes running down the street. 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.720 It's a guy dead at the store. She had killed 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:57.280 her husband. Wow, my mama's boyfriend's cousin. So this is 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.000 all in the spin. This is what I'm seeing at 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:00.719 seven years old. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.160 The stories that you've told us in a few minutes 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.680 we've been talking. Maybe one of those will happen to 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:08.120 someone in their lifetime. 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:08.719 And you've just. 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:13.000 Told of the first formative years of your life. You've 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.280 already been through this much. That was an everyday occurrence 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:18.319 in the environment you grew up in. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:23.280 Yes, And at age nine, my sister had came into 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:24.800 my room and said, get up, get up. I'm like, 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.560 I'm sleep. I just got home school. I'm sleep. Like, 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.439 leave me alone. No, I'm not getting she said, no, 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.400 wake up, wake up. It's something red in the kitchen, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.400 Like leave me alone, please, I don't care. She's like, no, 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.160 get up, I get up. Boom, it's a fire in 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.319 the kitchen. So now I gotta go fill up a 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.920 whole thing with water. And I threw it on the 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.680 fire in the fire to say night. I did it 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.600 again and it got bigger. Warning I said they'd be 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.000 one more time. I'm gonna do it one more time. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.120 We gotta go filled it up again. I threw it 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:57.240 on it and this just boom popped me and my 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.280 sister said we got to go. We ran out. So 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.960 we lost everything nine years old, all our stuff, animals. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.520 We had hundreds of stuff animals in My aunt Miami 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.480 used to give us because she's just drive eighteen willers 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:14.480 and lost clothes everything at nine. So childhood was challenging. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.560 I tell people a lot that my childhood experiences, all 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.720 the things that I've experienced, it taught me a valuable lesson. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.760 But I had to learn when I got older. But 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.760 in those times I didn't understand. I just suppressed my feelings, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.560 my emotions. I suppressed it all. I didn't know I 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.280 was doing that. And in my culture, you don't talk 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:39.520 about therapy. You don't talk about counseling anxiety. You better 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:41.480 get up. You better get up, boy, you better, you 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:43.880 better adjust yourself off. Don't let that little boy look 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.800 at you crying. You're a man. Never let somebody see 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.880 you crying. This is what I was taught. So nothing 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.160 was going to FaZe me if I got hurt. I'm 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.720 back up on my feet. That's how I grew up. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.839 Where did you find connection even at a young age. 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.679 Was it on a field to play? Was it playing football, baseball? Basketball? 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.120 Did you have any connection outside of your mom and 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:14.280 your sister, your aunt? 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.800 That's a great question. I had my grandmother, So both 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.480 of my grandmas died when I was fourteen, and then 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.000 my grandma died. She died when I was eleven, I 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.720 mean twenty eleven. Then I had my memo too, So 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.960 I had a foundation of women, you know, really comfort me, 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.480 not only my mom, but my grandmother's, my aunts, and 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.880 I had that connection. But for me it was I think, 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.920 Jake is the field. So when I got on the 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.760 baseball diamond, I was a whole different animal. When I 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:41.560 got on the diamond, I thought that was gonna be 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.080 my deal. And so when I got on the baseball diamond, 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:45.679 I was ready. And then when I got on the 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.160 football field, I was really ready because I ran fast. 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.319 I was the fastest in my county. Nobody could nobody 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:53.920 can out rub me. So that's what I think. That's 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.240 what the connection was for me. That I knew I 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:01.199 was fashioned baseball. They caught me flash so I was 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:02.320 an act called flash. 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:06.880 I just you know, because I'm thinking it back to 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.960 my childhood and where I really the only outlet I 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:14.440 had was playing football, and know I had that outlet 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.520 of releasing all that stuff that I was suppressing. You know, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.079 I was more of the hitter as opposed to the 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.640 hit tee. But it was something where I could leave 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:29.640 there and just for a minute, I felt peace, you know, 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.680 regardless of knowing where I was going back to, like, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.320 I felt peace. And look, I applaud you for your 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.400 openness and your willingness to say yah, my culture we 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:42.760 don't do that. We don't talk about it. I guess 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:47.080 what it wasn't just in your culture. It's crazy because pride. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.400 And ego will kill you aste. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.080 And it's one of those things where you know, we 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:55.240 tell our sons, if you got to say something, say something, 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.360 I'll never judge us on our job. Yes, talk to 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.920 us please, And we can't help what we don't know. 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.480 With the education that your mom gave you, of the 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.880 streets that was so important for her to show you, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:09.680 where did that take you? 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:12.920 It took me and it led me to now me 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.880 and my brother we started our little game and so 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:20.760 we become leaders of a game. And in our whole 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.120 perspective on that was that we never had fathers growing up. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.160 The older guys used to come to our games to 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:29.600 watch us. They supported us, the older guys, so the 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.440 older ones in the hood, they would come to our 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:34.560 games and support us. And my brother and I we decided, Okay, 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.280 this is what we wanted to do, and we wanted 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.719 to be different than any other game because we were 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.520 athletes and we wanted to develop an organization that was 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.280 going to be like we're going to wear our clothes, 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.400 we're going to wear our big chains, and but we 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.800 were going to be excited about it. But also when 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.240 we left our city in Arena, now we go to 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:59.720 Oklahoma City, that's when violence happens. That's when fights and 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.160 the violence and the guns and all that stuff became 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.960 a part of life. But that's not how we wanted 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.440 it to be. We just wanted to represent our colors, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.760 represent who we were, and just be us the athletes. 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.000 But we go to Kloma City because we probably beat 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:15.480 them on the football field, we beat them on the 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.880 baseball diamond. Whatever. They didn't like us small town, they 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.240 knew where we're from. They knew we're gonna fight hard, 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:23.680 We're gonna play hard. They knew that. Now when we 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.320 go to Oklahoma City, that's what it was. So my 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.600 mom her teaching me that and me seeing tons of 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:30.640 game violence and sometimes I'll be walking down the street 0:14:30.640 --> 0:14:34.000 in my city and broad daylight. We got enemy over 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:36.720 here that's shooting and we got the duck and like, 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:38.560 oh my goodness, this iseem like they're shooting a look, 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.000 we can peer peer, we can hear the bullets flying. 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:43.960 It's like, oh this broad daylight. I was always alert. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:46.920 I knew every exit, my mama taught me. I knew 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.280 every exit, and I knew eskate route for everybody immediately 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:52.080 and I would never see it with my back to 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:53.720 the door. None of those things. So that's what those 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:56.400 things she taught me, and I still use them today 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:00.200 because it was valuable. And she told me different ways 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.680 in different routes, and we had sound language that we 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.040 would do, we had different words that we would say. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:08.800 So we created this me and my mom. She created 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.360 these different things in me to show me, like this 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.280 is what is going to be necessary for you to 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.800 live the life you want to live. Growing up like 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:19.440 that is it can be challenging, but at the same time, 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.760 it was like, okay, what do you do? Because that's 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.520 all we knew is that. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:26.320 It's hard for me to sit here. I mean because 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.320 you know, I sit here and try to think that 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.840 was your reality. Yes, always on edge, always having to 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:37.120 check the door, always having to know your environment. Did 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.760 you ever get in trouble like when you would go 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.360 to Oklahoma City or things got gnarley? Was there ever 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:43.400 any trouble. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.520 In our hood and in our environment? So if you 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:47.920 look at my grandpa was a killer and he was 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.080 a known killer, it's just what he was. So the 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:52.760 name was respected, and then we have other people in 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.480 our community was really respected that had bodies as well 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:58.800 in our community. But Oklahoma City they don't know who 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.480 my grandpa was. I don't even dank who your grandpa is. 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:03.960 Your uncles got bodies or your uncles did this, and 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:05.920 I don't give a thing about that. They want to 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.760 see your heart beating, check you out, well, who are you? 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:10.720 And so that what was going on when we went 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.840 to Talkoma City, So it was fights and all these 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.200 different things. So for me it was I never drank 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.480 alcohol ever in my life, so I was always alert, 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:20.480 so my prefund the cortex was always pretty solid, so 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.440 my decision making was there. And I was standing not 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.480 on the dance floor, but I would be up high 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.520 and I'll be watching like our little homies down on 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:31.960 the floor doing what they do. And if I see 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.160 me got a little out of hand, I would, you know, 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.400 come down and kind of check and let people know that, 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:40.920 you know, I'm kind of leading this side. I'm looking 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.800 for their leader and whatever there are, and we can 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:45.800 talk about it, or we can just let them go. 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.000 However y'all want to do it. One time, men, their 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.600 leader got kicked out and we were walking out. I'm like, man, 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.480 what do you want to do? Like you know where 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.320 we're from, Like what do you want to do? He's like, man, 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.760 I'm not even talking to you, so sorry. That's cool. 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.080 So he goes and gets in the car. Some girl 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:03.760 picks him up in the car and he comes by 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.320 me in the car and fast as a forty cal 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.800 at me. I say, what are you gonna do with that? 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:13.720 And he's looking at me, say what are you gonna 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.359 do with it? He's just showing it and waving it. 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:19.320 So I hit him up, disrespected. 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:20.320 Him, boom, What does that mean? 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.640 Well, I just do it. Whatever his game is, I said, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.600 a killer to it. So I hit him up and 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:28.840 I say, you know what it is on mine? And 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.480 I just looked at him in his eye and they 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.159 just rolled off and then he starts shooting in the 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.240 air once he got on the highway. Coward. I knew 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.040 that at that time that a lot of these cats 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.320 are cowards and they really don't want to fight, they 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:43.720 really don't want to shoot, they really want to do 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.159 any of that. But this was happening day there, every weekend. 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.399 Then we went to Oklahoma City. Something like that was 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.320 going to happen. But we just never got arrested or 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.760 anything like that happened. So we just never got any trouble. 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.400 I guess it was a drilling rush that we wanted 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:00.280 to go to Oklahoma City and we wanted to you know, 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:02.159 todd the girls and go to the club. And I 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.280 did that. My brother didn't do that, but I did that. 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.639 He stayed and he sold drugs and we supposed to sold drugs, 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:08.879 but he wanted to make money. 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:10.479 What kind of drugs did you sell? 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.120 We sold crack and we sold the wheed. We learned 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:14.399 how to do it, and my brother was telling me. 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:16.919 He said, may you remember when we were going to 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:19.280 Houston and we wanted to go to Houston for spring 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.600 break and we needed money. I'm like, yeah, I remember that. 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.280 He said, you remember I made a thousand and I 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.600 think you had eight fifty and we made that like 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.800 in a day and a half. I was like, dang, 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:32.080 I remember that. That was crazy. So he just told 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:33.640 me this the other day and I'm like, wow, yes, 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.000 I remember that, And that right there started it all. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:37.879 I mean I was shooting dice on the block on 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.520 the corner probably I was twelve thirteen years old. It 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.800 was like gambling and drugs and all that was part 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:45.159 of our nature. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:46.879 Did you ever partake in the drugs? 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.159 No? I never did any drugs either. Never never did 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:50.880 any drugs, never smoked the sit We had, never popped 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.000 any pill, never smoke any weed or any of that. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:54.600