I always struggled in middle school, high school and then college when I was 19 years old. I barely got C’s in grade school and then I flunked out my first semester of college. I’m talking 3 F’s and 2 W’ss. It was a very difficult time for me – my mom kicked me out of the house because I didn’t want to go back to college after that first semester, my dad passed away, I got into some really bad drugs (opioid epidemic hit hard in my town) and ran with some bad people. Wound up in jail once, buried a few friends from overdoses – just an absolute shit show.

Around 22, I got a good sum of money from selling my dads house – and right around that same time a friend of mine randomly came over after not seeing each other for awhile. He was also in a dark place; and one night at 11am we just decided to move out to Los Angeles from Wisconsin.

While in Los Angeles I met my now wife who really helped me get my shit together and I decided around 26 to give college another try. I went to an online college and got A after A in every class. I don’t think I finally started to accept that I was smart until like my 3rd year. I remember my sister even mocking me and telling me I was just taking easy classes. My self esteem slowly started to recover and build up.

Then after graduating with a 3.92 (statistics can eat my ass) – I took a gap year and did a STEM post bach majoring in biology. Met some amazing mentors and now after a few years of doing that, I am not 35 and working on a Master’s in biomedical research with a near perfect GPA. My next step will be a PhD in either virology or microbiology.