I tried my first cigarette at twelve years old. In 1981 a few of my friends and I took the liberty to take my mom’s car keys with the intent to go for a “joy” ride around the block. We thought that driving at that age was cool and we also thought that it would be even cooler to smoke cigarettes while we were driving, just like the adults did. Just because it was my mother’s car that did not stop me from sharing the “driving” experience with my friends. So every time we made a circle around the block, back to the starting point we would park the car and the driver would change seats so another person could drive. Where were the adults while we were doing this? I can’t speak on behalf of my friends, but as for my parents, my mother was in the hospital recovering from knee injury and my dad worked fourteen hour shifts at a Greek restaurant.

I tried my first joint at twelve years old. I remember just starting high school, The Fall Dance was coming up and I could not wait to go, I was very excited. My friends and I did not want to get dropped off by any of our parents, because that would look “uncool” so we decided to take public transportation to the dance. As we were walking to the bus depot one of the guys pulled out a rolled up “cigarette,” he said it was to make the forty-five minute bus ride more “exciting.” I knew full well that it was not just a cigarette, because by this time I had been smoking cigarettes for a year. I thought “how bad could this be, I’m already inhaling smoke.” I also thought “if I can get away with smoking cigarettes while driving my mother’s car at the age of twelve, surely I can smoke pot, get high, go to the dance, be back home and in bed, before both my parents get home from work. I took several puffs and nothing happened, twenty minutes went by and still nothing. We arrived at the dance and still no effect, we had been at the dance for about thirty minutes and there still was no effect. I remember wanting to dance and to go on the dance floor but I was so shy and insecure that I did not. It was in that moment of hearing the dance music that the high hit me and then I went out on the dance floor. From then on I connected getting high with being able to having a good time.

I tried my first line of cocaine at 14 years old. I was a descent basketball player going into high school, I tried out for the freshman team and I made the “B” Team. After three games I moved up to the A Team and started several games. I enjoyed high school ball, but it was nothing like the friendships I had made in the Greek Orthodox league. So I quit high school ball and played church ball, where I had a starting position as a shooting guard every year beginning my sophomore year. It was May of 1984, one month before I would turn fifteen and I was at an outdoor party. I noticed that the “cool” people were going inside the house and upstairs. My curiosity was piqued, I needed to know what was going on up there. After a couple of hours I let it go and forgot about it, I just wanted to enjoy the party. Then one of the older guys asked me to go up there, I could not believe it, I was only fourteen years old but now I was hanging out with seventeen and eighteen year olds. At the top of the stairway there was a loft bedroom with three girls and a couple of guys hanging out, talking, and being overly friendly with me. All eyes were on me, a rolled up one hundred dollar bill was handed to me, and from there I was pointed to the direction of a mirror on a dresser with white lines on it. Of course I knew what it was, my heart was pounding, why did I say okay to coming up here I thought? I did not want to do this, but I was asked, “You party right? If not don’t worry about it.” I should have said “no, I’m sorry you guys, I don’t do this,” instead these words came out of my mouth, “Sure, all the time.” I turned and I snorted a line about six inches long. In minutes I could talk better, I could think clearer, my vision was heightened, and I fell in love instantaneously with the cocaine rush I was experiencing.

 Why did I say yes to cocaine when in fact I wanted to desperately say no? I was a starter on the basketball team and soccer team, I was very athletic with good grades, and therefore what was it that caused me to give in and not do the right thing? One poor decision led me to another poor decision, which nineteen years later when I had reached the end of my addiction, I eventually made the ultimate decision of entering a Christian facility for my drug and alcohol problem. At the age of thirty-one when I entered a program for drug abuse I did not know how to truly lead a Godly life. Upon entering the program I wanted to know “How I could ever lead such a life.” I also wondered “How can I go back into everyday life and be a good leader in my home and in my community.” I understood very quickly that in order to “lead” a Godly life  I needed to first understand how to be a good follower. I desperately needed to follow good leaders who modeled Christ. As a resident in the program I paid attention to my leaders, I watched how they led and the words they used to either encourage or discourage their followers.  

Our Mission through LIFEiLEAD is to Biblically, equip, develop, and empower, men and women who have been freed from the bondage of addiction through Jesus Christ, with knowledge, competencies, and skills to become passionate leaders with integrity in all areas of their lives.

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