Life Philosophy

Life’s Journey………

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Over the past 3-4 years I’ve been on a journey that I would never have predicted. This journey has led me from South Carolina to Georgia, back to South Carolina – and now to Kentucky.
It’s been an emotional rollercoaster ride and all along I continued to repeat, “Just keep moving forward. Just keeping moving forward.” I did.
I’m sharing this as I know there is someone out there going through their own personal SHTF and is not focused on some apocalyptic event years from now. No – they just want to make it through the night.
For that someone – Keep moving forward. Just keep moving forward.
[On a side note the picture attached to this post is from outside my camper next to the Ohio River. No filter. Simply amazing.]

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3 Comments

  1. John Hancock says:

    These memories of your adventure will be with you for the rest of your life, look at the Beautiful new places you’ve been to, the experiences you’ve had along the way or all the new and interesting people you’ve met a long the way! I love to travel, always have I started very young going from Kentucky or Virginia to Michigan to spend the summer or Christmas break every year with my dad from the time I was six years old, I grew up on a very impoverished farm in Kentucky, looking back at the people I knew from there I realized I would have never know the rest of the country was so different and what a great big world there was out there to explore if I didn’t spend that time traveling to see my dad, later in my youth at 13 I moved to Virginia where we were doing much better I had a indoor bathroom and running water in my house and horses we breed and raised Tennessee walkers, a lot of work, sometimes through the night work and straight off to school after a quick shower, but very rewarding, the culture in Pennington gap Virginia was like night and day compared with anything I knew of Harlan Kentucky and Ypsilanti Michigan, it was amazing really unfortunately only after about two and half years my mom got rye syndrome from taking aspirin and very nearly died, it’s much like a stroke most common in children but it put her in the hospital in the fight of her life for about 9 months, so moved back to Kentucky in with my brothers wife, unfortunately my brother was doing a little time away which made for a less than welcoming stay, not a pleasant experience, I was looked at and treated as a unwelcomed mouth to feed, at this point was when I pretty much did whatever I wanted 15 years old I became a street kid that didn’t really have a home, would sleep there that’s pretty much it, I’d find my own food and company, and as a street kid bad company was what I found, in short order I began doing all the things you want to teach your children not to do, drugs, theft, failing school, sleeping around, you name it, with the exception of Heroin or any kind of needles then I’ve done it, I seen the effects of heroin on a family member at a young age and it left a impression, I never liked needles, big baby when I have to go to the doctors office… from there my mom and step dad were divorced and my mom had bought a house in loyal Kentucky, Virginia was where my heart was, my first love Tina, my horses, I did not adjust well, straight back to living as a street kid, my single mom had returned to collage to get her masters degree and she worked full time, I found more street friends to continue my self destructive behavior with, ran away to Louisville Kentucky the first time, stayed at a Fraternity house for several months, then back home to run away to Jacksonville Florida, was caught the second night on the beach with a Bom fire, not to smart, mom came and got me after two weeks of juvie, then few months later, a kid I was with robbed his grandfathers safe and we ran away to Dallas Texas, I guess you know by now, I really like to travel, 15 be dammed I was ready to go… by the time this was all said and done my mom had signed me out of school to keep me from being taken by the state for Truancy…. Once in Dallas I met up with my brother and his roofing crew who were traveling around the state doing roofing staying in hotels, unfortunately my mom put the fear of god into those guys and one of his coworkers turned me in… back to juvie I went this time in Dallas Texas, the place was so crowded it was like a small town, we were spread out on mats in a basket ball court, I came in at around 2am in the morning carrying my mat and blanket around a half dark ball court looking for a spot, in the morning 5am they called us all to attention for role call when a big black guy next to me smacks my ass and announces “this is my bitch” yup don’t kid yourself about jail it’s exactly like you see in the movies except worse, with that being said it was like every prison movie I’d ever watched went through my head instantly, the very first guy that starts shit with you, you have one singe chance to make a lasting impression, and so I did, that boy had know ideal the beating that was about to be unleashed on him, i went primal, like it was for my life, I beat him bloody before three guards ripped me off him, I truly think I would have killed him if they didn’t stop me, I’ve never been so scared, after that it was three days in solitary, I’m telling you it’s just like the movies! I’d never been locked up alone before, it was a very surreal sobering moment in my life, I cried like a baby that entire first day. After a week in this place, they kept me away from the main population after that first day, had me in classes, I think the guy I beat up was a gang member and they were worried about retaliation, thank goodness. I was Extradited back to Kentucky where they tried to charge me with will’s grandfathers safe and contents, I was no where near it when he got the stuff but I did sell the guns, in my defense he told me they were his, I should have known better, but hey I was young and stupid. From there the judge put me in a boys home with a retired preacher who held teenage kids until they could be placed back with family, spent a few months there until me and the preacher decided we were not going to break one another’s will, I was very bull headed and stubborn, and he believed having us do hard labor would teach us how to be better, this involved building a river dam, then removing the rocks to another place, basically pick up rocks move them there then remove them back over there, yeah I was like not no but fuck no! But that battle of wills went on for a couple months and is a whole mother story in itself, after leaving the preachers I was back in juvie this time in Covington Kentucky overlooking that Ohio river you sent us a picture of Rourke, except I was 74 floors up in a building and the cat walks around the cells didn’t leave a lot of room for views. After a few months I finally got my day in court my dad paid full Restitution for all contents of safe and for other damages I’d done along the way and was awarded my custody, went to live in Ypsilanti Michigan just two weeks before my sixteenth birthday! I signed up for adult Education to get my high school the diploma, and got a full time job working nights at Arby’s, after a little over two years taking half of every check I made I’d fully repaid my father and got my high school diploma! From there a couple weeks before I tuned 18 I got a job doing maintenance in a Senior citizen high-rise, I got a free apartment, made 10 a hour but all utilities and rents were free, then I started taking classes Washing our community college for my LPN…. My dad saved me from a rotten life, gave me the chance I needed to turn around a bad thing, and in the end those experiences in my life has given me the strength to do some amazing things, I do not give up, I do not fail, I may learn something new and stumble, but if I’m learning that is not a failure, it’s like all things in life, a adventure!

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  2. Arlene says:

    Life is an adventure -many variables.You are right Rourke- all we can do is keep moving and hopefully growing emotionally and spiritually.Beautiful photo-the beauty is you took the time to capture it !!Thanks for sharing and John H also.
    Arlene

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  3. Arlene says:

    Dear John H -wow you are a true survivor.Thanks for your open and honest
    sharing. Thank for your Dad and you for choosing to change your life.
    Arlene

    Reply

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