JayD210
Active Member
To anyone else, that picture is just a random pair of old worn out Vans Rowley Shoes. To me, this picture is a reminder of having to live hard in order to get to where I am today. I lost almost everything in 2009 because of the Global Recession of the time. Was laid off in January, turned 23 in July, and still no work by the end of July. Decision was to leave California at all costs, then find work, and keep working in my field at all costs. Little did I realize what that would involve. On my way from Santa Rosa, California to Henderson, Nevada outside of Vegas, my Car at the time blew its Engine. Uncle Rodney made his exit through the Engine Block of a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria. After being plucked by Highway Patrol from the middle of nowhere, I ended up where I was going and would spend the next 2-1/2 years without a Car. To me that didn’t matter. There was work to do and as long as I was still alive, that work was going to be done. I traveled long distances by bus and plane to get to the places I ended up going. Once in those places, I was in business. Without a Car and local Public Transport usually not covering where I was going each day, nobody helping me, the only option was to walk because giving up is never an option.
October 28, 2009-January 20, 2010, I walked Arlington and Ft. Worth in Texas. I pulled 15 miles a day most the week each week here.
January 21, 2010-May 23, 2010, I walked all of the southern half of Charlotte in North Carolina where I would later move in 2012. I met my Better Half in February 2010. They had to wheelchair me into the Plane back to Las Vegas because of all the blisters from the amount of walking I pulled off. Pain wasn’t a good enough reason for me to stop walking because I had work to do and places to be. I was pulling a minimum of 20 miles daily most the week each week.
January 19, 2011-May 25, 2011. I walked Carson City, Nevada outside of Reno.
Keep in mind I worked 7 days a week doing two jobs this most the time I traveled. I came closest to dying in Carson City.
I did all that in all weather conditions. Snow up to my waist. Rain. Heat. Thunderstorms. I wasn’t about to stop or give up. I was prepared to go until either I died or I completed what I set out to do, and that objective was to find my place where I belong. My Better Half and her family, knowing what I was going through after I asked her out before leaving Carson City, they really helped me wind down, get back to Vegas alive, live my life in Vegas for a short time, then come to them. Through all that, the Shoes in that picture were on my feet. I didn’t quit nor did I give up. I was prepared to either die or win in order to seek the life made for myself. In order to get where you seek to go, sometimes one must be willing to put all the cards on the table and go to the very ragged edge of what’s humanly possible to pull it all off.
In 2013, I sat and reflected on what I’d done. I did so by crunching the numbers in terms of the miles I walked everywhere I went that I could account for, knowing that in reality, the number would be far greater. The miles I accounted for totaled over 4,800 miles in this pair of Shoes. So when they tell you to walk a mile in someone’s shoes, little do they know that some already have many times over.
What you get out of life itself will depend wholly upon what you put into it and how you treat those around you as you go.
Never quit and never give up.
October 28, 2009-January 20, 2010, I walked Arlington and Ft. Worth in Texas. I pulled 15 miles a day most the week each week here.
January 21, 2010-May 23, 2010, I walked all of the southern half of Charlotte in North Carolina where I would later move in 2012. I met my Better Half in February 2010. They had to wheelchair me into the Plane back to Las Vegas because of all the blisters from the amount of walking I pulled off. Pain wasn’t a good enough reason for me to stop walking because I had work to do and places to be. I was pulling a minimum of 20 miles daily most the week each week.
January 19, 2011-May 25, 2011. I walked Carson City, Nevada outside of Reno.
Keep in mind I worked 7 days a week doing two jobs this most the time I traveled. I came closest to dying in Carson City.
I did all that in all weather conditions. Snow up to my waist. Rain. Heat. Thunderstorms. I wasn’t about to stop or give up. I was prepared to go until either I died or I completed what I set out to do, and that objective was to find my place where I belong. My Better Half and her family, knowing what I was going through after I asked her out before leaving Carson City, they really helped me wind down, get back to Vegas alive, live my life in Vegas for a short time, then come to them. Through all that, the Shoes in that picture were on my feet. I didn’t quit nor did I give up. I was prepared to either die or win in order to seek the life made for myself. In order to get where you seek to go, sometimes one must be willing to put all the cards on the table and go to the very ragged edge of what’s humanly possible to pull it all off.
In 2013, I sat and reflected on what I’d done. I did so by crunching the numbers in terms of the miles I walked everywhere I went that I could account for, knowing that in reality, the number would be far greater. The miles I accounted for totaled over 4,800 miles in this pair of Shoes. So when they tell you to walk a mile in someone’s shoes, little do they know that some already have many times over.
What you get out of life itself will depend wholly upon what you put into it and how you treat those around you as you go.
Never quit and never give up.
