Have you ever heard the story about the mouse who finds himself drowning in a bucket of cream? Since this mouse was young, he had gone through so much. People dying. Finding new burrowing spots. Meeting new friends. A lot changed for this mouse during his lifetime, and more challenges and triumphs are to come.

This mouse went through many highs and lows. Turning best friends into a good team. Traveling across the United States of America. Meeting all sorts of diverse people from all over the States and befriending each one of them. The personality of this mouse was second to none, and everyone wanted to know the traveling mouse who was as vibrant as his personality.

Sometime in the not so distant past, this mouse went through some tough times in his short life. He was down. People told this mouse that he meant nothing. That he was irrelevant. That he wasn’t going anywhere and that he deserved to feel this low for what he went through in his past and that he was a terrible person. People also told this mouse that he was just a junkie who wouldn’t amount to much if he were to stay on the path he was living at that particular moment in his life. People started looking down at this mouse during his lows, forgetting all the good memories this mouse had created with his friends. This mouse knew better than to make the mistakes he had made, but for some reason would slip up time and time again. People started to doubt this mouse, thinking he wouldn’t be able to make it out of his situation and wouldn’t be able to make something of himself.

But this mouse was different. This mouse realized where he came from. Who he grew up with and how those people shaped him into what he is today. How he was raised in a good family and knew where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do but was simply a little misguided. This mouse remembered his self worth and realized how many people he has affected and that he truly was better than his mistakes as a youngster. This mouse had a fight in him. He fought, and fought, and fought. And eventually, all that fighting churned that cream into butter, and the mouse simply climbed out of the bucket.

We are all just a kid from somewhere. Kids are just that: kids. They are young and make mistakes. It is what you learn from those mistakes that make you what you want to be and how to better your situation. This life is not about what you away from, it’s about what you walk away with. Walk away from the wrong ones, and stay with the rights things that make you better as a person. Everyone has the ability to turn themselves around and go from a lowly situation and make it into the greatest story ever told. Because that’s what life is: YOUR story! Too many people sit on their death beds wishing they had lived a little more while they were young.

As for the mouse that churned that cream into butter, it describes the incredible true story of my everyday life. I’ve experienced many hardships and lows. But the triumphs I’ve also experienced allow me to live. I realize how blessed I am every single day to be alive. That I’m healthy and breathing and living the life I’ve always wanted. That I’m not in jail and staying away from the influences that took me down the dark path I was going down in 2015. Last year I was involved with things that suffocated my name and I started missing my chance of being the person I know I am. All my days without those bad influences, I pray and pray that I see the finish line of the person I want to be and that people know and love. I’ve realized some friends don’t stay, and to me, that’s just fine because I pray that the man above takes that kind of people who aren’t on my team out of my life. I realize when I die, I want to be remembered as a legend. A legend to my family, friends and the cities I have called home.

I made a promise to my mom that I’d bless her with some grandkids so she could spoil them. Made promises to my friends that I would see it in myself the reasons they see in me and why they believe in me. And to be honest, now that those certain bad influences are out of my life, it’s hard not to see that when the praises go up, the blessings come down. Everyone can be that mouse that churns that cream into butter. If you fight hard enough, eventually that cream will churn into butter, and you can simply climb out of your bad situation, turn everything around and live the life you’ve always wanted. Compose your own incredible true story so you may die a legend and be remembered as the person that was always true to themself and how you beat the devil and realize you are better than all of the things that once tied you down.