Garet McLendon

I had to learn all this stuff.

I learned all this stuff by the 12 steps, by being consistent, by throwing myself into recovery, man, and doing these 12 steps and doing all this stuff, man.

It just sort of, like, it just sort of,

just sort of just the consistency and, and, and, and just doing it, man, just sort of like, just, just gave me like a new stamp in life, man.

I'll tell you, it was like, I, I always thought, man, like if something ever happened to my mom or I was like, cause I was like my, my work, she wrote me a letter every prison term.

I always, I always knew within a couple of months, my mom was going to write me a letter.

She maybe sent me 20 bucks one time if I like Christmas or something like that, I get 20 bucks from my mom or something like that.

And, uh,

And I always thought, man, like if something happened to my mom, like I don't know if I'd be emotionally strong enough to be able to withhold that.

Like I don't know if like that would be like my reservation of why I might go out and use again.

And I put enough work in, man, the 12 steps, got my understanding to all the stuff that works, man, that when my mom died, my dad died first.

And less than a year, my mom died.

And like an emotional wreck, man.

And I'm going to tell you about the last thing I ever thought about, man, was going out there and taking a Drake hit or fix and putting it inside my system to change the way I feel about this.

And I just went out there, man, and my greatest asset, man, like I live a very good life today.

And my greatest asset today is, man, is going into the depths of hell, the life I was living and being out there on those streets and gang members and streets and all this stuff, man, is being able to have my hand out there in that pot, man.

And to be able to see a guy and recognize that guy as me, as a guy that's out there who's been running the streets so long, involved in gangs, can't stay out of jail, who's addicted to drugs, who doesn't talk to his family, who loves his kids but he can't see his kids because he's ashamed and the guilt and all that stuff that he carries with him, man.

It's like, get these guys, man.

And I showed him how to live a new life, man.

And that's my primary purpose today in life, man.