Turning Trauma Into Art and Mentorship with Ashshahid Muhammad (Part 1)

Ashshahid Muhammad lost his eye from a bullet, which also ripped away the life he thought he understood. Surrounded by crime and addiction, he built an identity in the streets, then watched it collapse into homelessness, relapse, and pain. His comeback story is not polished, but real.

We talk about addiction recovery, the humiliating loop of rehabs and shelters, and the sneaky danger of relapsing when nothing seems “wrong.” For Ashshahid, the moment of surrender hit like lightning: you realize you’ve been performing recovery instead of living it.

Then the conversation turns to creative healing and art therapy as a lifeline. A pencil becomes a way to quiet the inner voice that has nothing nice to say. Drawing becomes a way to process anger, sadness, and fear. And it grows into a mission to mentor young people through comic books and storytelling. Passing the GED after years of chaos, Ashshahid explains how hope can arrive through a single person and one new skill.

For more on Ashshahid Muhammad:

Graffiti University Comics - YouTube

Graffiti University Comics - Instagram

"W.B.C: Dopeboy Dreamz" Book - Buy Here

"W.B.C Comic Book 2: Wave Nu-Vo Era" Book - Buy Here

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Welcome to Out of the Blue the podcast, where we explore those unexpected, life-altering moments that break us open, wake us up, and remind us that transformation can happen in the most impossible places. I'm your host, Vernon West, joined by my son and co-host Vernon West III, artist, musician, and the creative heart behind our show's Look and Sound. Today's guest is a man whose life is a testament to resilience, reinvention, and the healing power of creation. We're honored to welcome Ashashaheed Mohammed, Staten Island artist, mentor, filmmaker, author, and founder of Graffiti University Comics. Ashahid's story begins in South Memphis, a childhood surrounded by crime, addiction, and survival long before he was old enough to understand the cost. By twenty-one, he had been shot in the head, lost vision in one eye, battled homelessness and addiction, and carried the kind of trauma that would break most people. But here's where his out-of-the-blue moment appears. Not as a miracle from above, but as a pencil in his hand. Art became his lifeline. Creation became his therapy. And that spark grew into a mission. Today, Ashasha Heed uses his lived experience, the raw truth, not the filtered version, but to educate and protect young people through comic books, storytelling, mentorship, and a television show he created called One Eye Television. His books explore everything from real-life consequences of street life to the importance of choosing the right friends. His new fictional project, North Park, expands his world even further, proving that creativity can build new universes from the ashes of old pain. He travels to five boroughs giving youth the warnings he wishes he had been given. He brings honesty into classrooms, community centers, detention halls, and recovery spaces. And through every brushstroke and every word, he teaches one message. From the streets of Memphis to depression and addiction to becoming a force for healing in Staten Island. Asha Shaheed's journey is exactly why we created this show. Because sometimes the most powerful redemption stories don't come from fame or fortune, they come from ordinary people choosing extraordinary courage. So today we're going deep into the making of a mentor, the rise of an artist, and the truth behind a man who refuses to let the streets have the last word. Ashashahe Mohammed, welcome to Out of the Blue the Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

How you doing, man? I I like the intro, man. I want to use that intro. I ain't never heard it. You can have that. I never heard it like that before. That's you, man. You're in every word.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

We'll send you the transcript. Okay. I'll do that. Yeah, no problem. I don't need that.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

How y'all doing? How y'all doing, man? Glad to be here with y'all, man. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, it's a blessing to have you, man. Thanks for joining.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Yeah. Yeah, we're really blessed by this. This is a great thing. Obviously, the first question we always start with is how it all started. Where that with this whole journey, where did it begin? I'd like to know where did it that spark come out of the boot to you to do what you did? I know the stuff that led up to it. You might want to say that too, but give us that, get to that. What started this whole this major, major mission that you have really going?

From Street Identity To Collapse

When Life Feels Like A Dream

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Well, um, what started, you mean like the transformation of my life? Yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. So, like most people know my stories, like I grew up in the Memphis streets selling crack, running the streets, um, doing everything a person in the streets would do, right? Right. And but at some point in that in that um season of my life, I became a big time drug dealer. So I was a drug dealer where I had an identity. Like I knew what it felt like to have, I mean, I don't know, I can't say if it was it was righteous pride, but I knew what it was like to have dignity and and morals. And I knew what it was like to control something, or what was in so many words. But once I got shot and I lost my right eye, and and I began to do drugs and became homeless. See, now all that that that that voice I had at first, the the control that I had, the um the the dignity, all that was taken away. And I had no voice because people that people that's homeless in the streets or people that's on drugs, they don't have a voice. You know, people look at them and see that that was you asked what what started the transformation was or that spark was the person that I was at first to compare it to this homeless person. You ever seen that movie um Trading Places? Yep. With Eddie Eddie Murphy now. Oh yeah. You remember when the the guy that was the person Eddie Murphy traded places with? Right. You remember he became homeless? He couldn't believe it. He he couldn't believe that his life that he once had was gone. And he was and it was like me. I was like, for as for me, I remember waking up outside, you know, like in a whole nother city, whole nother state. I don't know nobody, but I remember like sleeping in other cities and other states, and a lot of times I used to be like, this can't be real, but it was it was so real that it seemed fake, and that's another thing that helped that that um my life another thing that that that kind of sparked it real hard was because I began to start to experience even when I lost my eye, right? When I lost my eye, it was so real, yeah. I I I couldn't believe it. Oh my god, I was saying one day I'm gonna wake up, I'm gonna wake up out of this, but it wasn't no dream, you understand?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

Yeah, I so understand this this exact thing happened to me when I got leukemia. I was I had been they put me on full life support at one point, right? And it was like I won't even get into that trip, but when I was finally out of life support and I was in this emergency place or a critical care unit of some kind, had nurses all around me all the time. One nurse came in one day and said, Oh, Vernon, your mother died. And it was, I did I thought it was fake. I did not even think it was she got to be this gotta be a a put on of some kind, but it was real. I did, I did find out it was real, but I know that exact feeling it did not seem real, it could not be real, it was absolutely fake in every way, shape, or form until it wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

Yeah, so and see that's what I'm saying. Like when it came down to to me, like you know, like like I said, I'm in a soup line, I'm in a rehab, I'm in like I'm in like my 20th rehab, you understand? Like, so now I'm like, yo, you I'm I remember a lot of I'm talking about many a times I remember sitting in a rehab and I would be looking out the window, right? And I seen the world just living their lives, and I'm like, and my life was like on pause, and I'm like, you can't, you don't even know how to live out there. You you you you know how to see, I knew how to go to a rehab or a shelter, I knew how to go there when I ain't have no more money. You see what I'm saying? I knew how to go there and and do good. I'm talking about, but when it was time to say it's time to go out there and be a man, see, I was terrified because see, because see, I got shot when I was 21. So everything, like everything that I knew how to do before I got shot, like I knew how to hustle crap, I knew how to make money like that way, but once I started using, it was like it was like uh Superman, the kryptonite. I can't you understand the drugs was like kryptonite, so I couldn't sell drugs no more, so I had no skill, I had no way to survive out there in that world, and I was and so it everything was like just everything was just falling on me as well, but I kept going in and out of shelters and rehabs for years, but I would hear the I would hear the message, I would see, but all this is the experience and the in the pain. See, it had to you asking me how's how it sparked. See, it had to be enough pain. See, that pain was so it became so great. The pain, it was so like I said, it was so real, right? I just couldn't believe that, bro. You sleeping outside, you know, you know the the the the cargo trains, yeah. Not not the subway trains, but the cargo trains.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Oh, I know freight trains. I know them.

Relapse Cycles And The Disease Lesson

SPEAKER_02 9:49

I used to jump those trains to get go out of town. Now, when they when the train goes out of out of the um freight yards it usually when they go out of the city, okay, it goes it goes so fast. Oh, yeah, like you got now. I'm not inside the now, mind you, I'm not inside the cargo. Oh, you're not in there, I'm in between them. Oh no, that's so I'm holding on, I'm holding on. So I don't I did this like two or three times until I I broke my foot. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, and um and and yeah, so what I'm trying to get you to understand is this you asked me, it took a lot of pain, it took a lot of experiences of that pain, it took a lot of um relapsing. That was another one. It took because see, I usually like I said, I would get clean six months, two years, two years, three years, ten months. I would go in and get clean, but like I said, it was it was when I like when they in recovery, they tell you suffer from a disease. See, I it was hard for me to grasp that right at first, at first, it because I was like, what you mean? Because I thought, see, I see where I come from. If you if you fat, I mean you healthy eating, you got a nice haircut, you got money, you got a nice outfit on, you got money, you got a car, you good, right? But see, that ain't got nothing to do with what I suffer from. The the the the addiction, you see what I'm saying? See, that's where it was it was fooling me at. It's where I didn't know that ain't nothing gotta be going wrong. When that joint said, let's go get high. I would go get high. What nothing was going wrong in my life, you see what I'm saying? Because some people say, What what was going on where you made what were you having a bad day? No, nothing didn't have to be going wrong, so that's why I had I I I began to really pay attention and recovery. Like, like I said, once I began to get in the rooms, I began, I said, you know what? Because I know how to share, I know how to talk real good, sound real good. Oh, no, I know that you understand the real good recovering because I used to be like the big book, yeah. I used to highlight it. My too. It used to look so listen. The big book, my big book looked like the golden book. It had it was highlighted and and so you know, you understand.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

I think that I think that's part of the disease because everybody, I myself, I was so great at telling everybody how oh, I'm the best person in the government. I can take sponsors, I can sponsor people. I am I've got it, man. But you know what? I'm a good liar, I'm a good bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

So that's what I was saying. You asked me, see, all that took that. You see what I'm saying? It took all that the the the walking with the big book in my hand to the meeting, you know what I'm saying? You know, all that it took all that to because see how you end back up in the drug house. How did you end up selling everything out your place? How did you end back up in the hospital with all this good inf you good share? Yeah, this is what I'm this is what it's telling me, right? You good share not practicing what you preach. It was just and and and that's when I realized that yo, you it's something really wrong with you.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

That's like a moment of moment of truth, and and an out of the blue moment for sure, because it comes unexpectedly, it hits you like a bolt lightning, right? When that moment comes and you say, I don't get it. I why am I and you suddenly realize you hit that point? So yeah, I'm hearing it right now, and you go ahead, tell us about what happened next.

Art As Therapy And Survival

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Okay, so like I said, I got shot when I was 21 from age 21 all the way up to maybe 36, 37. I was going from state to state, right? You know, because see, for one, it's embarrassing. Like if like if you grew up in a city, right? You go to school with people and stuff. See, it's more devastating to you if you see people that you grew up, let you let them see you in their condition. So that was one of the reasons why I went to another city because I didn't want, because mind you, I was a drug dealer, money cars. So imagine seeing somebody you going to school with, and you a bum that you went to school with, a girl you used to have a crush on, or a girl you used to like, or you went with. Now she's to you, you a bum. You turned out to be a bum. Right. So so, like you asked me, all this is is is the pressure that that that that that broke that that something inside me said, I give up. I surrender. That's what they say in real. I exactly surrender. So when I was going to all these cities, I would meet all types of people, like homeless people, people in recovery, uh, all but at the same time, in my homelessness, I would see artists, street artists creating art. You see what I'm saying? So that's when I began to, because I knew I had an art skill, because I used to do graffiti when I was young on walls, and I used to draw when I was in school. So when I would travel in my homelessness, or like when I was in a rehab or jail, people would ask me to draw something for them. That's how I was able to get extra money for like commissary and stuff in jails, or like if I was in a rehab, I could draw to get cigarettes when I was smoking. You see what I'm saying? I do so so um, so I began to draw with my art and be on the streets. And when I when I was going through a lot of pain, or when I used drugs for five, six days, no sleep, just so when I finally get a clear head, I would have my portfolio. Now I got a portfolio with me where I would draw. So the drawing kind of helped me not my mind talking to me. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 16:19

It's a so beautiful, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

So beautiful, yeah. So my mind, like, you ain't nothing, you you ain't shit. You see what I'm saying? So to draw, it would help me like distract that voice, and um, so and I began to go, like I said, I would begin to go around different artists. So now I begin to see different art because I like I said, I would go to big cities like Philadelphia, Washington, DC, New York, uh, Atlanta. So I would see all types of different artists and art on the walls and stuff. So the times that I would be like clean a little while, I would go around the art world and and and I would pick up on new art. And and and then, like sometime I would be like in a rehab, and they would say art is like therapy. So that's where I picked up the knowledge on I can use the art to vent. It's you know, it's just like talking, you know how they say you need to talk to somebody, you need to talk about your problem. So, what I learned to do is all the the the the feelings that I have, I learned to like challenge into art, you know, my anger, madness, sad, even my happiness, my joys. So I learned to turn it there, and and I begin to feel better about my life. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

And Joe, what a soul you have, man. It's powerful, it's powerful. You don't know. I think you do know, you're starting to know if you if you don't already, you okay, you have something very special. God wants you to be where you are right now, and even more, you're gonna be doing a lot with that talent because that's a gift, that's something from a higher power, man. That's you can't, you know. You didn't. We don't. I did probably the same with music, so does Vernon. We use music for the same thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

That's if you if you give you music, I know you love it because that's like I said, that's what I began to realize that because I would see homeless people drawing, I would see them drawing, and and and it would be times I'd be using drugs. See, the drugs were I couldn't draw. See, that's one thing my high power creator wouldn't let me do. He wouldn't let me use drugs because I used to see artists, they was doing drugs, they would they would draw to hustle to get money to get high. See, I couldn't do that. That's how I knew God had a veil over there. He wouldn't let me because he because see, when I get high, ain't no drawing.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

This is so interesting. I gotta see what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

I can really say it, yeah. So I wouldn't no I gotta tell you, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:57

I gotta tell you I used to when when I was I was I was rolling, man. I was my band was huge at the time. I had a huge platform, a lot of people listening. I would go back to home and I'd say, I'm gonna get some drugs, I'm gonna get high, I'm gonna write some really good songs, and you know, never fucking happens, not once, no matter how much I would go home all psyched from a show, and I got my little packet of what I'm gonna do. I get there and I get all whatever, and then I go, wait a minute, what was I writing? I don't know if I couldn't do it. There's no way the higher God will not let us use our talents when they're right.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

That's how I knew it was a gift because, like I said, I seen I witnessed people sitting in the drug house drawing to get money to get high, and I couldn't for no, I'm talking about, and I was way better than these artists. I was way better, but I knew for a fact if I put some in me, ain't no, ain't no drawing nothing.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a testament to where the inspiration is coming from, too, because you channeled your like soul in order to create and start like thriving as an artist. And so when you do when it's like when you take the drug, you have to like turn off a part of that thing that channels the inspiration to create in the first place, yeah. So it doesn't, they don't they don't align.

Losing An Eye And Gaining Empathy

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Nah, nah, and yeah, that so like I say, it it was a it was it it wasn't just no one thing that happened, it was a it was a process, just like a process in recovery. It's a it was a process because see, like I said, when I grew up, I was a bad kid. I stayed in the principal office getting whoopings back then. I used to get palons on the butt or suspensions, board suspension, home suspension. I stayed getting all those, so I was already a uh a tornado. You see what I'm saying? Going through, you know, I was already that person, but see, like I said, when I got shot. See, I used to go to jail a lot, right? So I would get out and go back to the streets. But see, when I lost my eye, right? It was like it took something, man. It it's that took a limb. You see what I'm saying? It's like you you you got two hands, right? And then one day you wake up, you got one. You see what I'm saying? So it's like now you got that that took something from me. So it was it was more depth, but here's the catch to this, right? At age 49, right? The more I go back and look at my life and create art, write comic books about my life, I realize that me losing my eye. Now, 20 20 some years ago, you couldn't tell me this, but today I know that if I wouldn't have lost my eye, I wouldn't be who I am today. If I wouldn't have lost my eye. I wouldn't be drawing art. I wouldn't have a soft heart. I'm gonna put it to you like that. See, me losing my eye got me in tune with getting high with a homeless person. And they telling me their story that they used to have dreams and goals. They you understand? I'm being I'm getting I'm getting I'm around people that they ain't got no drug problem. They just so terrified of life, they just went into a deep depression and they just stuck out there in the world in a zone. You ever seen homeless people there where they just you you know they ain't on drug, but you wonder what happened to them. And and but see, I got a chance to sit with these people, sleep beside these people, and understand that yo, it's some people out here really suffering in life, man. It's some people really like something happened to them. See what I'm saying? So it's like, well, with me, me, like I said, me losing my eyebrow is like it was a it was a pain for road, but that pain and them the memories and them scars of all those faces and places and alleys and banded houses and and forests and and and swamps and and trees and because I I I was everywhere, you understand? When you see when you on drugs, see when I was on drugs, it took me, it didn't, it didn't it didn't say you're gonna stay here. That joint said, go with. I went into deep dark places, man. You understand? I went into like I said, banded houses, like swamps, you know what, swamps like like areas where people don't go, like those trains. So those trains that go out of town, right? That those cargo, they go to places where cars, where people don't even can't even get to. You understand? They be up in mountains and and they would stop like at certain like certain like when they would go out of out of the cities, they would stop like in wooded areas where you see no roads, no trees, no nothing, just pure land, and they would sit for like five to six, seven hours, ain't moving, and I will hear wolves. You know, you understand, you understand what I'm saying? Like so, what I'm trying to get you to understand, you ask me what everything I just described, that's what happened, man. That was the the the the you ever seen a rebellious person that just so rebellious they because see I love the streets, you know when you love something so much it gotta hurt real bad for you to let it go. That was the lifestyle of the streets. See, I guess the creator said he gotta be broken all the way down to the core. You see what I'm saying? Because because see, I love the streets. I'm talking about you ever see like the like I think in the big book it said cuts with a double-edged sword. Don't the big book say something like that? Oh, yes, it cuts, yeah. It cut it cut one way, like like it feels so good. You understand? You it feels so that the lifestyle or the high so good that you don't even care if you suffer or die. That's where I was at. That's what happened. You see, when people walk in the streets late night, they've been out there for 20 years, never come to recovery. They've never been to recovery, they just out there. That's what I'm trying to get you to understand is that the pain was so bad.

Train Injury To Shelter Turning Point

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Yeah, it it's definitely, I think that's such a clear picture of what addiction really is. Yeah, and um, you know, the the beautiful thing to your soul, your connection to your higher power has made you saw not only that in that darkness, you saw the light, you know, and in losing one eye, you grew way more of you know, you could see better. You know, it almost like made the eye that was left super powerful. You know, you've got powers now, and so now we're at the point you've you've seen that you've you've now you're in program and now you're getting it, and then you start your career. Let's hear about that wonderful story.

GED Breakthrough And Real Hope

SPEAKER_02 26:47

All right, so here's how I I got into that, right? I was on a cut on one of those trains. Remember, I told you I broke my foot, right? Yep, so so when the train stopped, I couldn't walk because my foot had because see when I ran and jumped the train, I grabbed it. See, sometimes the train can be going and and and you grab it, it could it'll yank you. You see what I'm saying? So he yanked me and it drug my foot. So so when I pulled finally pulled up on it, and like a couple of hours later, the train stopped, and the the dude got out the cabooth. He was just walking, check. I guess he was checking the train, and my foot was hurting so bad. So I just told him, so he came and got me, they took me to the hospital. So now I'm in the hospital, and uh they took me to a site ward. I'm in a site ward, right? And um, so this is now mine. I'm somewhere in Missouri. I'm somewhere in Missouri, so I don't know where I'm at in life. You see what I'm saying? I don't know where I'm at, so geographically and spiritually, yeah. So they took me to this site hospital, a big old, it was a real big, it was big, you know. So I that's all I remember. I was in there, and I and it was like once I stayed, I think I stayed maybe a week or two or something like that, and they was like, Where are you going? So I was like a shelter. So they sent me to a shelter in Nashville, right? I'm in Nashville shelter, got a boot on my leg, you know, the the boot put so I'm in there. So mind you, all this stuff that I've been going through in life, I'm I'm asking myself, man, aren't you tired? You now you you see when you're in a shelter, you see homelessness, you see people getting high, you see people it's like a uh it's like a prison to be real. Uh shelter is like a prison to me. So I'm there. So now, but it was another shelter, like a it was a better place, better looking shelter right across from it that you can get in programs. They help you with a lot of resources. So I would go over there and they had a drug program over there. So they had they was like, You can get in the program. So I got in the program. So I was in the program for a while, and they was asking me, What do you want to do with your life? I said, Man, I want to go to school. I was just saying something, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm trying to get out the cold, of course, because in the shelter, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, because in the shelter, they you they you gotta go out early in the morning, like five or six in the morning. They put you out, you're going to come back so in an hour. But over there in the other shelter, you can go over there and you can they don't put you out in the morning, so that's one of the reasons why I was over there. The main reason I'm gonna put it like that, because it's cold outside. I'm trying to find a bed, so I'm telling them I want to go to school, get me a place. I'm just talking the regular talk, but in reality, once my foot healed and stuff, I start going to GD class, right? I'm in this GED class. I ain't been in school in a long time. I dropped out young, you know. So I'm in this school and um trying to take the pre-GED test. I think I failed the pre-GD test two times. So by this time, I'm living out, I'm not in the shed rehab no more. I got a room, I rent a room out. So I quit going to the GD class. So I'm working with this this guy, this guy in recovery. He had he had recovery houses, so that's where I was at. I was like in a recovery house. So I would work with him, like cutting trees and stuff like that. So I stopped going to the GD class. So I get a phone call, it was a uh a private call, and I would I looked at the phone, I said, Man, I ain't gonna answer this phone because I normally don't answer private numbers. So I answered it, and it was my teacher. She was like, Where you at? Where you been? It's been like a month. I said, um, she was like, um, come back to the school, and um, I was like, now mind the only reason I could I I my mind told me this, oh, she must like me. You understand? So because she was a good looking woman. So I said, Oh, she liked me. Oh, I'm coming back. That's that was the only reason. I said, I'm coming back next week. So I get up there, they asked me, um, she asked me, What why um why you drop out? I said, Because when we taking this GD test, y'all timing us and and timing me now. Mm-hmm, I'm a drug addict. I I mean, I don't want nothing that that wrestle my brain. And I told, I said, look, I don't, I don't, it's too, it's too hard. Is I said, man, these questions, because in the G if you ask it like social studies and science questions, like how the how I'm gonna know this, man. I'm coming, you understand? I've come from doing drugs, jails, and institutions, and here it is, you asking me some scientific, not even that, some of those math questions. Like, if he traveled from New York to uh California, how many hours and how many seconds? They was asking all these types of questions. If it was an hour delay, how many, how much longer would it take? I'm like, yo, listen. So the one, long story short, the woman told me, she said, Um, I'ma teach you how to take a test. She said, Now, mind you is multiple choice. She said, I want you to read the question. She said, Look at all the questions, the answers that you know for sure ain't the answer. And the ones that you think is the answer, she said, eliminate the ones you don't that you know that ain't the right one. And she said, The last the ones that you think take your best shot. So I started doing it right. So she said, Go take the GD test. Now, mine the GD test seven hours long, so you had to go one day three and a half, and the next day three and a half. So I went and took the test, right? Boom, boom. So it took two weeks for the test to come back. So two weeks went by, I get a phone call. Lady said, my speaker, Muhammad. I said, This is him. She said, Uh, just wanted to let you know you passed the test and hung the phone up. Awesome. Now listen, my my addict mind said she called the wrong Muhammad. You see what I'm saying? So I called because I didn't, I couldn't believe that I passed, right? So I called the number, it was busy. I drove up there. I said, I need proof, I need because see me. I'm an addict. You can't because I didn't believe, I just didn't believe that woman. I didn't even believe myself. You see what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 33:48

She was you know, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:50

So I went to the to the place, she printed it off, and I remember crying, man. I remember outside, I was crying. I'm talking about not no tea, I'm talking about crying, crying. I know what you mean because all this stuff that I just told you that I went through, right? To get to this point, that what was going in my head, of course. Like, like all the all them them drug rehabs, all you know, but but here's the catch though. What made me want to go back to school, right? I seen people in the rooms of recovery doing it, and they was they gave me hope that you can go back to school and be something that you always wanted to be.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Out of the blue the podcast, hosted by me, Vernon West. Co-hosted by Vernon West III, edited by Joe Gallo. Music and logo by Vernon West III. Have an out of the blue story of your own you'd like to share? Reach us at info at out of the blue hyphen the podcast.org. Subscribe to Out of the Blue on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And on our website, out of the bluepodcast.org. You can also check us out on Patreon for exclusive content.