Escaping the Max
As a very young child my mother told me over and over again that she's chosen my name after the Arch Angel Michael who fought satan in the pre-existentence. This was a big thing for a little boy who watched his mom get beaten. It was a big thing for a little boy who was beaten. It took it's toll on me and still does 40 years later. It's not fun growing up wanting to protect those around you while knowing that you couldn't protect the one you loved the most from another that you were also supposed to love. It lead to all sorts of adult issues like a very poor choice for a first wife. My family has and is still paying for that till this very day.
It all came to a head one day after many staff assaults at work and the realization that the management at our institution was knowingly releasing the most violent inmates from our Max Security Segregation back into our general max population. It became too much to handle and it took its toll on me and my family.
Leaving the confines of that place would be no small feat as the government wanted to keep me and use me till I was nothing. They dragged me back and forth over half the continent and interrogated me, called me a liar for what was clearly seen on video surveillance and lied about me, making up fake letters to harass me. It took six years to escape but I did.
I moved on and away. I went to school and still do. I started teaching and realized I loved teaching. I love seeing others succeed. And perhaps that's what I most love about being a firearms instructor for my own company. We see success all the time and it rocks. I am teaching others to protect themselves, enjoy life, and to escape it by going into the mountains to harvest healthy animals for bringing up healthy families because even though I grew up in a non functional unhealthy family does not mean that others have to. In fact it's because I grew up in this environment that I HAVE to do this. It's cathartic and healing to spend my summers traveling with my dog, sleeping in my truck, enjoying the sun, the rain, and the laughter and cheers for success...this is how I broke down the prison gates.