The Stories of The Grove: Akron’s Story

“You become the environment you stay in.”

Content Warning This story contains references to grief, addiction, suicidal ideation, and overdose. While it also holds hope and healing, please take care while reading. If you’re in a vulnerable place, you are not alone, and you are not beyond help. 🌿 Essence Grove™ is a space where stories can grow in honesty, even when they begin in the dark.

My life fell apart on February 5, 2012. That’s the day I lost my grandfather, and with him, a part of my foundation. Fast-forward to 2024, and everything I’d managed to build: my relationship, my home, my stability; collapsed again. My girlfriend of ten years left. The family we built broke apart. She had her reasons, and I know now it’s not about blame. We co-parent, and I respect that. In that moment, everything in me crumbled.

I lost my home. My car. I tried to end my life. The gun jammed. That’s not a metaphor. It just… didn’t go off. Something, someone, somewhere said, “not yet.” So I bought coke and finished it quickly. That was my first overdose. It led to harder things, dangerous things, trying to numb a kind of pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I spiraled. I hit rock bottom. I went into debt and started vanishing from myself. I didn’t care if I woke up.

Until my son was taken from me. That moment cut through everything. I saw it clearly, he needed me, not the streets. I needed to find a way back.

That’s when it started to change.

These days, I still pray. I pray that he never walks the path I did. I remind myself that straying from the path is human, but choosing to get back on it? That’s power. That’s the difference. And that’s what I want him to see in me.

If I could say one thing to anyone lost in that same darkness: keep going. Even if you’ve strayed far, the path is still there, and it’s yours to return to.

-Akron

I asked for an image as a symbol for his healing; this is what he was nice enough to share with me.