Or page. My mind is blank. This page is about to be filled with words to empty my head.

Do you ever label the eras/timelines in your life?

The big ones?

The ones that curated who you are?

Who you were?

Changed you to who you are now from what you were then?

The big fat juicy traumas?

The life changing events?

The moves, the shoulda moves, the why did I stays?

The relationships? Oof. I doubt I’ll ever talk about those on here except in broad strokes

I could summarize my life in 7 timelines

Why 7? I don’t know. I’ve always felt connected with the number 7.

I was 7 when my parents split

14 when my dad died

21 I got my DUI

28 I committed to full time restaurant management (gross)

35 I had an emotional breakdown

42 I opened Southern

49 a light came on in my head and told me my drinking days are over.

There’s seven major events in my life right there.

One of them turned out ok I’d say the others sucked a big fat chunk of shit.

It’s not the exact years of these occurrences that may have shaped me it’s the trajectories they caused

Parent’s divorce ripped me away from being surrounded by a large somewhat volatile but loving family. Pushed me out of Greenville into a whole ass ‘nother planet of Piedmont. Complete culture shock to me with zero explanation. I had to pick the clues out of the air as they fell into my lap. If I had to fault my mother for one thing that fucked my life up it would be her communication with me during this transition. I love you dearly mom but you fucked up here.

14? A no brainer, one of my favorite people of all time died suddenly and left me to sit and rot in that god forsaken town. My grades plummeted, my life went from hanging with friends I had made in Mauldin to never seeing them again. I had two friends in Piedmont until I was 16. My father was very much attached to my young teen social life. No sports for me in high school. I hung up my cares after my dad passed.

21 I had my real taste of freedom and I went wild for a bit. I moved out of Piedmont as soon as I graduated high school but after 6 months I used my parents home like a hostel. I got it from watching my siblings do it over the years. I knew mom would always have a bed open for me. My parents kept me under lock and key for most of my teen years. Two girlfriends would tie up my time for a bit but when I hit 21 I took the governor off of my fun engine and went wild. It wouldn’t take long for a dui to cause me to lose a good job and put my ass behind financially for about 5 years. The biggest trajectory to take from this would be my introduction into the service industry. I lost my license and had to settle for whatever job I could find. Which would be serving for Fatz ass cafe. I would dip my toes into the restaurant service and it would ultimately pull me into a riptide of a tumultuous lifestyle of some fun drugs, booze and deregulated nervous system. I lived my life like a drunken sot for quite some time.

28? I tried my best to conform to a 9-5 job and completely sucked at it. I had tried my best to leave the service industry but I found the real life quite boring and too many domestic rules. I went back to the steakhouse I had been employed at for a couple of years and prostrated myself for that company. “Do with me what you will. I no longer have a vision for my future”

I gave them my entirety. My soul. The service industry would become my personality. I collapsed myself into that system.

35. This one was a mental trajectory. I can’t describe it any other way. I had a career and a long term relationship that no longer fit my soul. Two things I had attached to myself without thinking of what’s the worse that could happen? I saw the first signs of my long time company weakening. I had thrown all my eggs in one basket for a dying career and a partner that I had assimilated with for way too long. My brother had died recently and I managed to get a healthy head injury that would permanently affect my emotional health. I got lost in my mind for sometime. My drinking would ramp up, my focus on my job would shift. 35 is when my entrepreneurial mindset kicked in.

42 I was a business owner. My ego for the next 7 years would balloon. I wanted to be Alexander the Great in the restaurant industry. I wanted to conquer, expand to other cities, become the number one mother fucker in my town. You can see the old me coming out long enough just to say that..

Go back in your hole Dr. Puddin.

I sacrificed it all. Every little, single, fucking thing. I got my ass handed to me in every form. Closed business, repos, credit destroyed, marriage hanging by an overcooked noodle.

Careful for what you wish for..

49? Lost my job

Lost my business

Lost my home

Pandemics

Lost my mind.

Quite the trajectory.

Stack them all up. 7 blocks that built me

“Seven minute abs” is in my head right now..

“All 7 and we’ll watch them fall”

🎶

Would be another. Thanks symbol Prince

The 7th of the 7s would be the one that put me back together.

The 7th one was the one that built the sober me

My reckoning

My lighting of trail markers

My awakening

It’s my cake icing

It fucked me up yo.

But

It began to strip me of all the other “7s”. What the other 7s built. I bowled them over like a 7-10 split. I just wanted to throw another 7 out there for good measure. 📐

It was just training me to sloooooow down. And as I’ve said a few times

I have

And thank god because my world kept moving faster as each 7 approached. Brake check on the 7th 7 amiright??

“7 little chipmunks twirling on a branch, eating lots of sunflowers on my uncles ranch”

Thanks for that one Farrelly Brothers.

What’s the next seven gonna produce? Flying cars?

I don’t know man

But

I’m here for it.

Peace and five more y’all ✌🏼✋🏼