Meet Myron (SC #490). “I felt like I was drowning.” That’s how Myron felt when he first arrived at Healing Transitions. And then, things slowly started to change.
“When I walked through those doors, I thought, ‘I’m safe from the abyss that I had been in.”
To understand Myron’s story, it’s helpful to go back a few years to when his addiction began. Myron grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and from an early age, he remembers wanting to live a rock-and-roll lifestyle.
“I wanted to be famous, so I chased fame and moved to Atlanta,” he said. “But it wasn’t what I was looking for.”
Even though fame never found him, he continued to live like a rockstar, going out to nightclubs and partying “nearly every night.” After a few years in Atlanta, he moved south to Miami and kept up the charade.
“I was just a nightlife socialite,” he remembers. “I was going out every night, having a great time, but at some point, I just got lost in all of that and started to spiral out of control. My life was going nowhere.” He moved back to his hometown in Arkansas, but he still struggled with his addiction and deeper desires for fame and wealth that started to feel hollow to him.
“I came to Raleigh from Little Rock on a Greyhound bus with eight dollars, two pairs of clothing, and two sandwiches. I didn’t have any hope. I had to borrow hope from someone who believed that if I was willing to take this step [and come to Healing Transitions], my life would be changed forever.”
Myron acknowledges that it was a very difficult decision for him to make, but it would be one that would change the course of his life forever.
“I never thought in a million years that this life was possible for me,” he shares. “I could not have come up with this myself because, when I came here, all I wanted to do was to be able to go to sleep after I’d been up for like seven days straight. All I wanted was to have peace again, happiness again, to be able to just enjoy the basic things of life again.”
Myron spent 16 months in Healing Transitions’ long-term recovery program, receiving his Silver Chip in August 2010. Just months later, he enrolled in Wake Tech where he would go on to complete his Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice in December 2013. Myron didn’t stop there, enrolling in North Carolina Central University and then graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Corrections in May of 2015. And again, Myron didn’t stop there and pursued his Juris Doctor degree and graduated from North Carolina Central University’s School of Law in May 2021.
During all of this schooling, Myron was working full time, sponsoring others, and remaining committed to his recovery journey. Since completing his studies, he’s been working in the field of criminal justice for more than a decade and currently serves as a criminal defense attorney.
“I believe the grace of God allowed me to live the life I lived and to be exposed to so many different people from underserved populations,” Myron said. “I don’t believe in bad people, only bad decisions, and I don’t see offenders as people who are beyond repair. There are so many people who could’ve looked at me and thought I was beyond repair too.”
Just like Healing Transitions, Myron believes in the power of second chances.
“This place was the foundation. Everything else I’ve been able to achieve stands on the foundation of what I was able to build in the 16 months I lived here,” he shares.
To the parent who’s feeling hopeless or the individual caught in the midst of their addiction, Myron has a word of encouragement to pass along:
“I felt the same way. I didn’t know what the future held, but I knew that my way of living wasn’t working. I didn’t have anything to lose, and when I came here, it was the best decision of my life.”