32 Year Old Gunshot Disabled Man Seeks Financial Boost To Succeed
by James Yancy II
It's been 12 years since the night my life was changed. Some say I'm blessed; I say I have a purpose. This incident happened when I was 19 years old. It's really been a hard pill to swallow, seeing that my mind wanders back and forth from reality and the past. I always wanted to succeed in life whether it was at sports or just socializing with others. I was an average student whose football career was ended from an accident on the field. I spent half of my high school years on crutches. By the time I graduated from high school, my neighborhood was going crazy. My mother and father were splitting up which made it hard for my mom and me to make it. I always carried a job. So of course I always had a little to show for my hard work. I felt it was my duty to help mom pay for bills. So now it's time for college. My high school sweetheart didn't want me to go but my mom felt I should go away to sever the connection with the neighborhood. The summer after my first semester in college, my first born but our second child was born. It was the summer that almost was my last. I came home got a job, and worked hard. I really realized that some people only get close to you to keep an eye on you. Well a neighborhood friend approached me one night in front of my mom's house. He asked me what time it was and robbed me at gunpoint. At first I thought it was a joke but the look in his eyes told me different. He kept looking over my shoulder. That's when I heard a pop. Someone shot me in the back and it spun me around and the shots kept coming. This is really difficult to explain, I almost died in front of my mother, girlfriend and kids. Imagine yourself in the line of fire and can't move. To this day the nightmares are out of this world. After 16 hours of surgery and a massive amount of prayer and love from family, I made it to intensive care. It took almost a year and a half for me to be released home with a live-in nurse. I couldn't go to my mother's so my kid's grandmother let me move in with all my new baggage. Time went on and on. I finally learned to walk and see my kid's mother cheating with the neighbor. So with that to motivate me, I began an intensive therapy program that helped me gain a lot of my motor skills back. After nearly four years, I decided to go to vocational rehabilitation. They gave me the confidence to know I am somebody even with my limitation. The whole struggle then turned for the worst. My now wife's mother passes. With this stress and not having a big enough income my wife left me again. I decided enough was enough. I enrolled in Vatterott College in their Computer Programming AOS program. I graduated thinking that I would be able to find work. That was two years ago. I'm not a felon nor do I have a record. I just feel like I have nothing. The house was saved. But the income I really need is not there. The frustration of not being able to work manual labor is killing me. I almost want to try to do even through my body won't let me All my options are stretched out. I don't want to give up. I've come so far. I just want to succeed.
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