The journey to redemption is rarely a straight path, often filled with twists, obstacles, and revelations. Dustin Dent's life story epitomizes such a transformation—a voyage from the depths of abuse and gang violence to the hard-won sanctity of personal growth and redemption. In our revealing conversation, Dustin lays bare the impact his chaotic childhood had on his formative years, and how, despite the nurturing embrace of an adoptive mother, the siren call of substance abuse and gang ties led him astray.
The dark reality of inner-city struggles is brought to light through a guest who bravely shares life-altering experiences from the confines of a notorious housing project. His gripping account of drug dealing, gang involvement, and a fateful shooting illustrates the profound consequences of life on the streets. We then take a sobering look behind prison walls, where survival strategies and the unexpected advice from guards expose an unforgiving world that shapes the destinies of those within.
Hope, however, is a resilient force, and our final guest's story is a testament to its power. We hear an uplifting tale of battling addiction and the redemptive power of faith and community support. The episodes pivot toward the influence of a church community, personal development, and the pursuit of an education to help others find their way out of darkness. The episode weaves together these strands of resilience, redemption, and the ongoing quest to transform scars into guiding lights for others. Join us as we traverse the landscapes of human fragility and the indomitable will to overcome.
The journey to redemption is rarely a straight path, often filled with twists, obstacles, and revelations. Dustin Dent's life story epitomizes such a transformation—a voyage from the depths of abuse and gang violence to the hard-won sanctity of personal growth and redemption. In our revealing conversation, Dustin lays bare the impact his chaotic childhood had on his formative years, and how, despite the nurturing embrace of an adoptive mother, the siren call of substance abuse and gang ties led him astray.
The dark reality of inner-city struggles is brought to light through a guest who bravely shares life-altering experiences from the confines of a notorious housing project. His gripping account of drug dealing, gang involvement, and a fateful shooting illustrates the profound consequences of life on the streets. We then take a sobering look behind prison walls, where survival strategies and the unexpected advice from guards expose an unforgiving world that shapes the destinies of those within.
Hope, however, is a resilient force, and our final guest's story is a testament to its power. We hear an uplifting tale of battling addiction and the redemptive power of faith and community support. The episodes pivot toward the influence of a church community, personal development, and the pursuit of an education to help others find their way out of darkness. The episode weaves together these strands of resilience, redemption, and the ongoing quest to transform scars into guiding lights for others. Join us as we traverse the landscapes of human fragility and the indomitable will to overcome.
Welcome to the VIP Cafe Show. I'm here with Debbie Larson Hello, hello and I'm Greg Smith, and we have a wonderful show today, don't we?
Speaker 3:Debbie oh, we do. This one is going to be so exciting. You don't want to go anywhere because you're going to get to glimpse inside of a world that I guarantee. You have not had a guest quite like this on the show quite yet, or yes?
Speaker 2:ever, ever, I like ever, that's always ever yes. Yeah, why don't you go ahead and introduce her again?
Speaker 3:Okay, our guest is Dustin Dent. Dustin is. I'm going to let him tell the story because I want to like stay tuned, because the path of redemption and a story of redemption never gets old and sometimes we forget. We look at people and we think, oh man, there's, that's a life. I don't see any way out. And that would have been probably how I felt about our guest today.
Speaker 2:That's why Shawshank such a huge movie. Yeah that's redemption redemption.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, dustin, talk to us, maybe, like from the beginning, tell us a little bit about who you are, just to give you guys an idea. We're talking to a former gang member been in prison here. He is right here with us today, and that's all I'm going to say. Dustin, talk, tell us, take us to the beginning. Young Dustin, young Dustin.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Debbie. Thank you, Greg. Yep, I really appreciate being here and being able to tell my story. So for me it started at a young age. I was in an abusive family. I was there drug abuse and I was there till about six years old.
Speaker 3:Then I went to foster care, continued abuse there was adopted and I cut in real quick, so sometimes it's easy to gloss over that, but when I was talking to you before you had mentioned getting locked in the closet and yeah be in and stuff. Can you tell us a little bit about that up until this age of your life? You're young at this point.
Speaker 1:Oh, I had a, so I had a sister. She was a year younger. We were very close Someone. They would call us twins.
Speaker 3:And she.
Speaker 1:Her dad, which wasn't mine, was very abusive towards me. He drove trucks. So when you come home he he mistreat me. He had a as most fathers do that that lazy boy in the living room that they sit in when they're not working and watch the game in, and he would make me sit there next to him. And I had ADHD. I was a hyperactive child and I just made too much noise for him. So every time I'd move he'd punch me in the back of the head and he'd always tell me the reason he did that was because the cops can't see the bruises. I punched you in the head, cops can't see the bruises. So then there was other times, you know the old 70s closets with the slats and he broke out one of the slats he would use that to to whoop me with and my mom actually benefited from it because he would lock me in that closet so she would slide me sandwiches when he wasn't looking and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:They ended up falling apart and then that's where I got to was about six years old. My mom dropped me off at a foster home. So this is all happened before your six years. Yeah, I got dropped off at a foster home. I stayed there for a while. That was it wasn't a good experience either. Then I got adopted by a wonderful woman, my mom Judy. I love her to death. She's been there with me and I always tell her that it wasn't her fault. I was broken before she got me. She did everything right From there. About teenage years, I started really acting out as a teenager. We're ungrateful as teenagers.
Speaker 2:Just I was in ungrateful punk Myopic where, basically, you don't think of the consequences of our action. Yeah, it's like you're constantly being drunk, really.
Speaker 3:Wow yeah.
Speaker 1:So then got into marijuana and drinking a little bit and then I was a runner. I'd run away from home yeah, I'd just take off and be gone and then pop back up and it put me in a boys group home, yes, and then I wanted to go back with my biological mom. For whatever reason, I had it in my head I wanted to go there and this woman loved me so much that it was you I bring it up so much that she let me go back with my biological mom, and that ended horribly. A week later she dropped me off at the same Children's Services that she dropped me off at when I was sick, and how old are you?
Speaker 2:right now, I'm 13.
Speaker 1:You're 13 years, yeah, so from there everything was downhill.
Speaker 1:When this woman is such an angel. She drove four hours to come and get me, after just dropping me off a week earlier. Yeah, they come to. You're still my son, I'll still take you and I come back out. And it was all downhill from there. It's tempted suicide and I just got in trouble with the wall over and over to the point where I ended up in the O D Y S Ohio Department of Youth Services. I spent a bit of time there and what they? It's more violent than adult prison. It honestly is. It is way more intense, way more, because if you fight in the youth detention, you're with the worst of the worst all over the state. It's state prison, it's just youth with all that testosterone spitting out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then. And there you don't. They can't lock you down like they do in the dog prison. In a dog prison, you do something to me. We're gonna go to the hole for a week, sit it down. Think about what we did there. They put you into a cell for an hour and then put you right back in the block with the kid you just fought what yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so. In November of this past year, which wasn't too long ago, usa today did a story on Ohio Juvenile prisons right, and what they found was that it's a plagued with violence, understaffed and and the recidivism Excuse me, recidivism rate yeah, it's high, because all these kids do is fight and and join gangs and all that. It's a horrible place. Everybody that I saw in prison Pretty much I met along the road through the juvenile, hmm sounds like survivor, that game, that.
Speaker 3:I end where you got to have alliances and try to figure out who's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our lord of the flies, that's what I felt like I was in. I did. I Ended up getting out of there, moved out of my mom's house about 17, moved to Cleveland with a couple buddies and just got involved with selling drugs and Living that type of lifestyle went really no hardcore drugs or anything, we just smoked, weed and drank and yeah.
Speaker 3:Now, did you have a job or anything during this time? Or you just?
Speaker 1:I would just get work so bad, yeah, so back then I would just get a job long enough to get enough money to buy some dope thing, wow, and then just keep it going until I burnt my hand and I do it all over again. But that was only like a couple year period 18, 19 years old, yeah, okay. And then I ended up oh, I ended up meeting. I went to Job Corps Uh-huh down in Dayton and met a girl there, had a kid with her, kept this tie between there and like the Cleveland area, and we had the kid in about in December 6 2010 my son Isaiah, and From there we ended up getting housing out in Kent at a silver meadows. It's a housing complex out there. It's like a project housing, mostly Baby's. Moms from all the inner cities end up there, we end up there and I end up doing the same thing. I'm 24, I'm selling drugs.
Speaker 1:I'm hanging out with guys that were from out of state. And then there was another group of guys that was from Ohio that was there and we got into it with them. Somebody got robbed and I and I retaliated and shot the guy that robbed us. And I regretted every day, thankful every day that I even have a second chance at life, and Just I'm so grateful to God for giving me another chance during during this time or the, whether a lot of college students that you were, you're in Kent and obviously Kent State is a huge college town.
Speaker 3:Was it more like talk to us about that period of time? Like, what did that look like? Was it a lot of college parties? Or was it like more like the project?
Speaker 1:because I know that yeah, so that area is off campus and it's a little bit further out. It's like on the border or so. You don't really, you're not in the okay okay, but you get a lot of campus people that come over there, so it's, you know, yeah, so you really, you really like your base was the project, so a lot of.
Speaker 3:I guess what I'm getting at is a lot of those.
Speaker 1:Projects and it's a very no okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but a lot of the government housing that a lot of babies moms end up at or people who Need help. Yeah they do become epicenters of a lot of drug use, a lot of stuff, because there there's a variety of reasons but so that was how it was like you're in this government housing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, absolutely you just turf war.
Speaker 3:Is that what you're getting at?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't go that far. I would say that that they were jealous. They were jealous of what we had going on and they did something to one of the guys I was close with, and okay, and then and that was just normal. Yeah, that was normal and in In that lifestyle. As a 24 year old who I've, my mom gave me every chance in the world to live right. Yeah, I could have went to college, I could have did, but I was just so screwed up.
Speaker 3:Are you the only kid that she adopted?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have an adopted brother, though that's her biological son, but we're one that she went out and adopted. Yeah family Wow yeah, so she's always been there soon and I Forget where I was going.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I interrupted you because I'm trying to get a picture.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so you shot this okay 24 years ago, 24 years old, I'm living that lifestyle. I chose to live that lifestyle. I want to make that clear because I feel like there's a lot of that's the angle I want to play in all of this is I feel like there's a lot of suburban kids that were like me that you don't have to choose, that like you've got every opportunity in front of you, realize it and use it. And I also want to touch at risk you too, because that's where I placed myself. Yeah, you know, I was at risk because I put myself in that risk Situations and when you play gangster long enough, you got to be a gangster. So and that's the situation I put myself in Found myself chasing down a guy that robbed one of my buddies and I shot him three times, once in the shoulder, once in the back and grazed his head.
Speaker 1:When I say that I am Grateful for a second chance at life, I'm not exaggerating. So much time did you do? I ended up doing nine, nine and a half years. Huh, nine and a half years. I saved a few people as well by taking that nine and a half. That leads into the story after prison. So I go for nine years, I get there and I know I got a lot of time. I'm 24 years old, this is my life for the next decade, so I put my foot down fast.
Speaker 1:I ended up in a level two. As soon as the soup came up missing I I did what I had to do and since the guy to the outside hospital it put me, they raised my life level immediately. So to two months in the door. I'm going level three, max yard. The worst level three in the state historically is Lebanon, down in southern Ohio and they call it gangland because the majority of the population is affiliated. And my remember I had said that I had a kid with a girl from Dayton which is right there. I put in a letter as soon as I heard they were raising my level, said I want to go to Lebanon. Wow, I knew that it was gonna be like the toughest thing, but I wanted to be close to my son. I'd rather get them visits and have to fight every day. Then you know what I mean. I don't want to miss out on that. I wrote them right away and, sure enough, a week later they wrote me back.
Speaker 1:Here you go bud we'll take a volunteer and so I get there and what they do is they get, they get you off the bus, you, you're in a line, shackling and chained, and you walk into the facility whatever facility you go to and when you walk in, you're all lined up and they strip you butt naked and there's a whole bunch of big guards, they got nightsticks on there though yeah.
Speaker 1:So they got those down there, the big canisters and mace on their hip, and these guys all look like they've been taking steroids for 10 years. Like, yeah, there's their big boys down there. So we're standing there, everybody's butt naked, and the CO walks out front and he goes he guys, you guys know where you are. This is Lebanon correctional facility gangland. We don't run shit. We don't run stuff.
Speaker 1:The gangs run stuff wow this is what they tell you right off the bus. And then they said if you got this I'm not gonna go into detail but if you got this tattoo or claim this or claim that, go to the hole right now, because you're not gonna make it on our compound. And if you try to make it on our compound and try to go into protective custody, you're gonna lose all your stuff. We're gonna take everything you got. So that's the speech. When you walk in. I'm fresh in this is my first time you're a little bit of hope yeah so I'm like alright, it's serious.
Speaker 1:So we walked down the hallways and the best way I can describe Lebanon is, like you made it, which on TV, the Shawshank Redemption. All of that comes in the focus when you walk on to one of these blocks. It's three tiers high, 50 cells back and one desk right as you walk through the door. About 300 inmates, 250 inmates a block, I believe so it's, or that would be like about 150. The first thing that happens is you're standing on the wall and all these big guys start coming up. These got tatted, these guys have their faces tatted, the big dudes and they come right up wait what are you?
Speaker 1:wow what are you? What are you claim? Going down the line, right. And so you, they give you your cell. You go to your cell. I go to my cell and I had this guy from Columbus he had just did 11 years, anyway, about a week later and my mom got me a TV because I got a long time to do. She got me a TV. I get the TV. Now, I'm not affiliated with anything at this time right, my cell. He comes back to the cell and he goes hey, man, they're gonna pop the doors for day room, keep an eye on the cell. My mind immediately goes to why do I need to keep an eye on the cell? What's going on? He's, he's listening. Man, the guy next door his cell, he is such and such with these guys and they plan on stealing your TV during day room. I'm not going for none of that. I can't. I got to put my foot down. If I'm gonna live here, try to see my son and get through my time, I can't back down.
Speaker 1:So I decided, when the doors open, I'm going over there and just handling business right away wow they called a room and doors open, and then I'm waiting at the door and the guy comes out and turns right back around and goes back in. So when he goes back in, I slide out, make sure that the CEO is not looking and I go into his cell. I was trying to give him an out. I don't really want to fight. You know what I mean. I will if I have to, but I really don't want to.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, hey man, I heard this. I don't know if it's not true. I'm not a gangster yet. I just was acting like one on the streets and did something that put me in here. So I'm I'm just basically surviving, trying to figure out how I'm gonna do this. He takes off on me, just punches me right in the mouth and because after being in prison, I know now that if I'm accusing you of something that deep and I came into your room that's where it's going anyway he knows that I'm fresh, though I don't know. This is a fightable matter.
Speaker 2:So I learn as you go, yeah.
Speaker 1:I end up actually on top of them and the door slides open. I look back and it's this big CEO and he comes in and closes the door and I'm on top of the guy and I'm like holding them down. I'm like it's the CEO, because I want to let him up and then he just keeps punching on me. So I'm like it's the CEO, don't swing when I let you up. So he goes. So he gets up and we're standing in front of the garden.
Speaker 1:I go man, hey, we just had a couple words, we were just wrestling around and this full goes man, I think you knocked my tooth out right in front of the CEO. There goes, we're wrestling around out the window and he goes what is this about? And I go man, we just had a few words, that's all. And he gets in his face. He goes what is this about? And the guy goes man, somebody told him I was gonna steal his TV. He goes you probably were right. And sends me back to my cell. So I'm standing in my cell and they come. The same guard comes up with his partner and he goes hey, man, do you know what that guy's affiliated with him? I go no, I don't really care. He said you should care and they're probably gonna get you when the doors pop oh and I said, all right.
Speaker 1:He said he said we respect that. You handled your business when something was gonna come up missing. If you want to go to the hole now and just 23, which at that time was refused lock and they'll ride you to another prison, you can do that. I said no, I'm gonna come on. So they look me dead in my eyes and said, okay, hit him in the stairwell wow yeah, my cell.
Speaker 1:He comes back up there and he goes. So what's going on? I'm up there slamming all my soups and cool eight. I'm like I'm going but to go to the hole and he's what happened. I said man, the CO's told me to hit dude in the stairwell. He's hit him in the stairwell. Then he's they're gonna get you anyway wow.
Speaker 1:I said and he's that's probably the best ones you want on your side at the end of these fights. Hit him in the stairwell. So I go all right and I get down there. I'm standing on the landing and the guy's coming down and he's at the top of the stairs and I'm standing on the landing in between levels and I'm looking up at him. He's looking down at me and I hear the CO yell get your Down them stairs right. And he looks back at them and looks down at me and just shakes his head and starts walking down the stairs. When he hit the second step, I hit him. He turned around to try and run back up. I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him down to the landing. When he fell on his back on the landing, all I saw was those nightsticks. I just saw three or four of them just start coming down on him Right. So I take off running. I'm gone. I make it back to myself. I'm trying to get back in, but I locked myself out.
Speaker 3:Oh.
Speaker 1:So now I'm worried on the range that all right now all his buddies are about to run up and get me Right and the CEO that told me to do it comes running down the range. He stands in between me and the rest of the range. They killed him, cuffed me up, took me to the hole. So that was my introduction to prison. Wow, yeah, wow, wow. And I had to.
Speaker 1:After that, I end up in the hole. I end up with a bunch of letters under the door. They call them kites and don't bring your out on the compound. We're going to kill you. And I'm like I'm staying out. All I'm thinking about is my son. I might get this opportunity to see my son. I'm doing a decade, so I don't care about any of that. I'll do whatever I have to stay here, wow.
Speaker 1:So a week goes by. They let me out. I go back to the block. The CEO goes. They call it a pack up. When you go back from going to the hole, they pack all your stuff up. So they'll ask you if you want to go get your pack up If you know you're about to go right back to the hole. You're not going to get that pack up because it's already in a vault. So he goes I'm assuming you don't want to go get your pack up. I'm like, nah, I'm not trying to give him my pack up.
Speaker 1:So I go up to my cell and they respected it. So they gave me a heads up. They come up to my cell and they said listen, our head porter came up here and said they was going to get you at rec. You got chow before then. I said all right. They said make sure you get them at chow. They're getting you at rec. I said okay, so as soon as I get into the rec or into the chow hall, I'm going down the line and there's three tables of them right there at the end of the line where you get your tray, and I just I was all suited, I had 10 shirts on, there's 20 guys.
Speaker 1:I'm about to, I'm like. So I come around and I throw my tray one way and I hit this guy with everything I got.
Speaker 3:Same guy.
Speaker 1:No different. Yeah, one of his people. Yeah, I hit this guy with everything I got and put him down. He goes down like a pendulum. And then I stepped forward to punch the next guy sitting next to him and the tray I threw was a pizza tray and I slipped on it. But it worked out because he was coming up as I was coming down and it caught him around the chin. So now I put two of them down.
Speaker 3:Mom was praying. I bet she was praying out loud.
Speaker 1:Oh she was. She was so worried. And then, um, and then I just grabbed the third guy and I use him like a shield. I'm rolling on my back like a turtle, I'm using them like a shield and they're kicking and punching and I go to the hole for that. And when I come out, that time I came out with a, a homemade shank, and I told him my own one, any problems, just leave me alone. You know what I mean. And they ended up. Actually, the one guy that had planned on stealing my TV was against their morals and codes. So they got to the bottom of it because they was losing so many guys as a whole over me and I. They didn't want that. They didn't want eight or nine guys going to the hole, because this one guy's just out of his mind and isn't going to. Let us get him first. So they ended up getting him right in front of me at Wreck what? Just to show me that it was over. Yeah, yeah. And then when I thought that what do you say?
Speaker 3:get in him. What's that mean?
Speaker 1:They were hit. Put a hit on him and hit him at Wreck. Okay yeah, One of their own guys.
Speaker 3:They killed him. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, which is?
Speaker 3:is rare.
Speaker 1:And after that is when I got affiliated and stuff like that Different group, no Different group. Yeah, I was with a different group. I was able to ride off of that for the majority of my prison bed because anywhere I went, somebody had known about that, because the guys that I went up against were, they're, the deepest in our.
Speaker 2:So this is where we say they don't try this at home. Yeah, they're only for professionals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for real. No, I say all of this because I want people to imagine if they were ever in that situation, especially somebody who was where I was. So if you're sitting at home and you're thinking I'm a gangster and I'm a thug and I'm going to do this, and when you act that way for so long, you end up doing something that puts you in a position where you have to either be that or be a victim.
Speaker 1:Well fortunately for me, I it wasn't. I fought instead of flight and it worked out for me, but you also had that love for your son. Yeah, and you know what, and that if I didn't have that, I probably would have never started it that way.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, because I I'd be talking to us today.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, I never looked at it like that. Absolutely. That was probably the hugest driving force. Yeah, because I would have never reacted that way. You know what I mean. I've been like, yeah, get me out of here, wow. And I was able to ride on that my entire 10 years. Everywhere I went, I didn't have a whole lot of problems, unless I wanted them.
Speaker 3:So you did the majority of your time there in Lebanon.
Speaker 1:No, so I started at Lebanon and then I was in a in 2015 and 16, there was a game war and I was involved in that and I was shipped out to another level three right after they opened it, Madison. They used to be a level two sex offender camp and then they flipped it over to a level three while I was incarcerated and I was one of the first bus rides there, so I got to transition to level two and do a level three and it was mayhem oh.
Speaker 2:I bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And then from there I was in a 13 man fight on the block and it was three of us against 10 and ended up getting rode out from there to level four OSP right over here in Youngstown. I spent a little bit of time there. That's maximum security. Yeah, that's our super max. Wow. So a lot of that had to do with my influence. So, from coming from Lebanon going to Madison being one of the first bus loads, I had my way. I was able to. This is who I am. This is where I came from. This is what I did.
Speaker 1:And this is who I'm going to be within this organization, and so I was the third man down at Madison. So once they find that out administration, they get you out of there.
Speaker 1:If you don't work with them and you're in a position of power, you're going to get rode out. That's pretty much what happened overall. I got rode out to OSP where I couldn't have any contact with any other institution or anything like that. It's real structured, real locked down there, and then from there I got my level dropped, went to Lucasville and that's the bottom of the barrel. That is, that is the bottom of the barrel. People throw urine and feces on each other. Oh, it's a daily occurrence. Oh, it's not a rare thing. That happens every day. Yeah, at.
Speaker 1:Lucasville. At Lucasville, yeah, and then I Was there. So I was at Levin. A guy beat a guy's head in with a brick, out of the wall right and and killed him. Then he ended up on the bus and he killed the guy in front of him with his chain who happened to be a sex offender, a child molester which, it is true, child molesters don't get treated well and prison women and children like it's yeah, yeah. And so he killed the guy in front of him for being a child molester and then Got to Lutisville and stabbed a co 47 times. Wow, yeah, I was there for that. He's in a cell and OSP right now with nothing.
Speaker 1:I don't know if he's still there, but I'm pretty sure when I left he was there with nothing. They took everything with the walls, just a concrete slab, nothing in there what happened now?
Speaker 2:Where are you at now? What, what happens that gets you to rehabilitate?
Speaker 1:Okay coming. Obviously, the fact that I was able to To Like God saved me from a life sentence, right. So that coming home and then realizing that you know there's a lot deeper stuff to that story. When I came home, I got involved in some of the same things, just at a higher level, and the anxiety of it every day and You're gonna go to prison or I'm gonna do something that that I did before I'm in the same boat, so I was before. This isn't right caused me to use I started using every day to get through that anxiety.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, if it wasn't this, it was that, and I just switched it up and I ended up OD in December 20th of 2022 and I was out for about six minutes, woke up to paramedics and police officers and just, it's just, god saved my life again and I Couldn't ignore it. Uh-huh, you know that mean like yeah, I could not ignore it. I called my bro officer. I said listen. I said I know things look good and I've been doing this, I've been doing that, but it's not good, I'm not doing well, I'm gonna end up back in prison or dead. And I said I'd like to go to a dual diagnosed Facility mental health because of the insta being institutionalized and the drug yourself reported. Yeah, yeah, I did, and by doing so, I put myself in a position where I had to do it. Now, you know, I mean yes, like by telling on myself I have to do this program, and I knew that going into it, I knew that's what I was doing to myself. I had to, though, so they said you got to complete a 30-day program.
Speaker 3:I I come out here.
Speaker 1:I did a 30-day program and I ended up leaving my 29th day and they still gave it to me. But I went right back to the city, right back to the same house I was in around the same people I was around from before that and it just instantly hit me that it was. I can't even be around. Yeah, the environment is too much, so I've got to change that. So in order to change that, without much help, uh-huh, I had to do it all over again, put myself in another 30-day program out here and Thankfully this time, because I had already had that one under my belt. Basically, I was able to find a sober living and I went there, got a job very quickly, started working from there, I went to another sober living where I knew a couple guys, which was a little more lenient, and I stayed there for about three months, worked every day. But before going there, I skipped a very vital part, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Before going there, the house that I was at was over here on the west side I believe it's Winchester, okay, and a guy tells me he sees me read my Bible every morning, my my daily bread, and he saw me every morning at four or five in the morning because I'd get on a bus to ride it to work Reading this stuff. And he goes there's a church right up the road and I go, yeah, and they happen to be encountering church on the west side. I'm a honing and I Walked up there one day and walked in and I just had this urge, all through treatment, that I wanted to scream out In guys name like I want. I kept coming across, praise him and worship him and scream out like, yeah, but your love for him. And when I walked into encountering church, that's exactly how I felt.
Speaker 1:I felt like Everybody was laughing and crying and jumping up and down and kneeling at the altar and Started jumping up and down. I finally got to scream, it praise God. And it felt so good and I've been going there for about a year now and it's like my, it's my backbone. That church, I love that church to death. I couldn't see me going anywhere else and I was raised Catholic, uh-huh, so it's, I just love it there.
Speaker 2:So we don't have a central connection. So yeah, good.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So then I ended up, like I said, at that other sober living, continued to go to church and Ended up getting my license back. A car, an apartment did that. I've been in my apartment for going on seven months now, been going to church for almost a year working just. I start school in March, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're gonna study psychology awesome yeah, so I'm hoping I can get it done in five.
Speaker 3:We're gonna do psychology SNHU.
Speaker 2:Some of the online courses yeah, one of the best psychology schools in the country is right now correct yeah yeah, yeah, if you they have a psychology museum, you should go see it yeah have lost bells in there yeah, everything oh yeah, oh yeah, I had no idea that turns the deal really well, dustin, one of his.
Speaker 3:I love that you touched on. I don't think we've ever seen, like we're seeing now, suburban kids yeah maybe they've, whatever reason, whatever the stimuli, they are living the gangster life. They that's that. They view that as the way to be the music.
Speaker 3:And you, yeah and they view that as something that's easily you could get away with it. We have people who are rapping and singing about being part of gangs and shooting their enemies and now they're like icons of society. So you see people getting away with it and so they try to relive that, and the prisons are full of people who think that they're going to end up like, and so I love that's your passion. I love that you touched on that, because it's not. We view that as people coming from the the poor sides of town or from people who grew up where they're like I don't have a choice but to get involved in stuff, but so you're.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that one of your passions is to talk to the younger kids, and stuff is that tells about what it is that you want to do so overall, I just want to help I don't care in what capacity that is, as long as I get to, and I feel, and I've been told, that people that know my story, they know that it can help people.
Speaker 2:It's like it reminds me of this back in the days of shivery. You know your scars well. You know how much of a gladiator you were. What'd you take? Wow, yes, and deep scars. That you're a warrior and a gladiator thank you for that and you've been there, you've done that and you're there to protect and be a hero for other people absolutely yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, thank you yeah, yeah, I suppose purposes huge. Yeah, you know, without a purpose, why do we breathe?
Speaker 2:yeah, and you found it yeah you're gonna save a lot of people thanks you are.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you. That's like the goal, right. Yeah, that's what I want out of all of this is, like I just want to help people. Yeah, like I, I don't want all that hurt to be for nothing. Yes, all that pain and suffering, I don't want it to all be for nothing. Yeah, you know, I want out of all of this to eventually be some reform in the, in the prisons, and the juvenile prisons especially. I want this to be big. I want to be able to take this to a whole another level where I can help people. Yeah, exponentially.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's wonderful if we have it 60 seconds in your mama, judy right? Yeah, if she listens to this, just talk to her for 60 seconds, and by that, so many other parents who've lived her experience or similar experience.
Speaker 1:I would have to say that my mom is the most caring, giving, passionate woman, driven woman, hard-working woman I've ever known in my life. Her loyalty knows no bounds. She's been loyal to me since the day she chose me and I would have to say that she's the best mom in the world, right, but it's my mom.
Speaker 3:I'm so sure that she and she'll be smiling. But here's that.
Speaker 1:But one of the greatest moments for me over this past year of change was getting to hurt to hear her say that she was proud of me because I've just I've been a failure. That's my biggest fear is family.
Speaker 1:You've been in a learning phase yeah let's frame that different yeah, but you can't help but feel like you failed sometimes yeah, yeah, so I understand what you're saying, so that's the biggest thing for me. I think about that all the time. To get that from my mom is huge oh yeah, that definitely brings a smile to my face, but I just I love her to death. There's not much more to say.
Speaker 3:I take a bullet for her that's great for how much she's been through.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to give you a chance yeah publicly have that 60 seconds yeah such years yeah, now people, if people listening this want to reach out, help you in any way, shape or form. Help you with yeah, getting organized help you with yeah in the future. How can they get in contact with you?
Speaker 1:you have an email yeah, all right, so I want to set up like you can edit this right oh yeah, yeah, we can hold off and release and then yeah, because I want to set up like the show notes, I want to set up like a tick-tock and yeah then, social media like a YouTube channel, show social media, right. Right, I want to set all that up. So, yeah, should I just give an email for right now, or yeah?
Speaker 3:I think it'd be great yeah yeah, definitely give an email and then yeah, if you need any help setting that up all right, then.
Speaker 1:Dustin six at gmailcom.
Speaker 3:Dustin six at gmailcom then I think dent first yeah, then Dustin six at gmailcom, so dent is DENT yes, okay then. Dustin okay yeah, ustin awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it just brings us to is the what's it? Called the rapid fire, part of our oh, this is about this, I know about it. Coke or Pepsi? Oh, coke, coke. Okay, all right, do we do? Now we do what's your favorite french fry? Yeah what's your favorite french friend who? Has fried waffle fry, waffle fry, yeah, chick-fil-a, chick-fil-a, chick-fil-a always sneaks that in there, don't?
Speaker 3:it may be all right, what's your?
Speaker 2:dark chocolate or white chocolate?
Speaker 3:dark dark chocolate that says a lot about a person all right, what's your?
Speaker 2:what's your favorite kind of movie? What kind of movies you like?
Speaker 1:I would have to go with comedies, but I'm not. I don't, you know? You read, yeah, I read what do you like to read right now? I'm into like philosophy, psychology, stuff, like that. I'm reading the 48 laws of power right now, okay, which is pretty intense. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty intense. I've always been told to read it over the years, but I never actually got into it.
Speaker 3:I've never actually heard of that and I am a reader, so that's interesting or the art of war, have 48.
Speaker 1:What was this book that's?
Speaker 2:the book. Here's no, here's a book I'm gonna highly recommend. Yeah, it's called the art of impossible by Stephen Kotler. The art of impossible by Stephen Kotler okay it is basically talks about how to get flow, how to maximize your potential, okay, how to, how you take this human part of us and really realize our full potential, and in a short span of time we have wow, and it's an excellent book, the art of it by Stephen Kotler's, kot LER, yes okay, I have one, I've got it right here only because you said that it's been part such a big party journey.
Speaker 3:What's your favorite book of the Bible?
Speaker 1:Psalms oh come on yeah, I do see it always every time.
Speaker 2:I flip it open a lifetime of their proverbs, yeah yeah, miracle with permane's man I really get very passionate about that one. Yeah, it's like a love and hate so let's last thing I want to end on. Is so anybody listening this struggling right now yeah, what advice would you give them? Or if they're parent and their kids struggling, yeah what advice would you give them?
Speaker 1:what I give a parent first of all would be that nine times out of ten, it's not your fault that you're probably doing everything you possibly can, and it's something you're just not gonna see any benefit from the work you're putting in until a long time from now, and they'll love you more than everyone. It does come around for somebody a kid that was in my situation, that is, you know, making mistakes and choosing drugs or that type of lifestyle. I would say that you don't need to do that. Be grateful for the things you do have, start taking note of all the small things, because once you lose all of that and all those people that you take for granted and it's just you to stand there are you seriously gonna be able to stand there alone?
Speaker 1:yeah and it'll be forever. Who's to say that standing alone isn't the rest of your life? Because of one mistake you made in 10 seconds wow, real quick you get to see your son. Yeah, yeah, I get to see him, I get to talk to him, yeah, and that's a big good, that's a big plus to changing my life around to. I wouldn't be able to if I was the same person I was thank you everybody, and we will be back.
Speaker 2:I'm sure we're gonna be hearing from Dustin again. We're gonna get some time to get this. We're gonna have him back someday. So much.