Mike has lived a very hard life. Challenges with mental health, addiction and living with Tourette’s syndrome have for years contributed to a life on and off the streets. Mike has been a regular at Street Roots for quite a while now. We’ve both seen each other at our best, and at times, our worst. I’m proud to call Mike my friend.
“I always feel like I should be doing something more than I am, but the damage that my mind and body has gone through is real,” Mike told me last September. “I’m going to continue on, day-by-day, step-by-step. I may fall down. I’ll have to get back up. My progress isn’t going to happen at the pace I assume it should happen. It certainly isn’t going to happen at the pace that someone wants it to happen. I can’t be rushed. I feel like, right now, as long as I try to be clean and sober and to be a better person, that is all that matters. Instead of walking up to a dope dealer and socking him in the mouth, I’m writing poetry, I watch the Seahawks, I sell Street Roots. I’m doing the only thing I know how to do to survive and to stay sane. I’m working to find God.”
Fast-forward nine months and Mike is still hard at it.
Mike spent nearly seven months in local shelters, something he said was one of the biggest challenges of his life due to his impatience with people and living with Tourette’s.
“I’ve wanted to give up and use every single day,” Mike says to me. “But I haven’t yet.”
Being an avid Seahawks fan, Mike tells me laughing, “Having the Seahawks win the Super Bowl helped a lot.”
Today, with the help of the community and a powerful determination, he is in housing and going strong.
Mike recently told me in front of Street Roots, “I don’t know if I can do this. I have this voice inside my head that’s constantly pulling me back and tugging at me. It has me doubting myself.”
I laughed and told Mike that he was an amazing man and no one could ever take that away, and to have faith that he wasn’t alone. I told him I had just had a meeting with some of the smartest people in politics, and to be honest, they were just making it up as they went along. We all wake up hoping to just make it through the day, doing the best we can. The only difference is that some people have a wealth of resources at their disposal and some don’t. Hearing that voice tugging at us, it’s part of the human experience. What matters is community and knowing you’re not alone.
“I like that,” Mike says.
“I just made that up,” I said, laughing.
“I know,” he said with a smile.
“One day at a time,” Mike says with a fist bump.
True that.
Go Hawks!