Kwame Onwuachi

Welcome to the show.

It's great to be here.

It's a journey, you know?

I would say, like, every part of my life has been either extremely difficult or extremely rewarding, and it's a journey.

So, like, you don't really notice it until you put it down on paper, you know?

And you read it through, and you see it through.

It just happened.

You know, I talk about it in the book, how I really got into it and I got into a fight.

And then after that fight, I was, it was pretty much an initiation into the gang.

And, you know,

I don't think it's something that you plan.

Sometimes we're a product of our own environment, which is unfortunate, but also we can get out of that mentality as well.

And for me, it was the moment that Barack Obama walked across stage and he became president of the United States.

And I didn't think that I would see a black president in my lifetime.

I voted for him and everything, but 55 years ago, we couldn't even eat at the same restaurants as white people everywhere.

And to see that, it showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to.

No.

So for me, it was removing myself from that environment was the first thing.

So I was selling drugs.

I moved to Louisiana.