Start Here
If you’re 22 and feel like you’ve got the world by the throat, this page is for you.
I know what that feeling is. Invincible. Smarter than the rules. Certain the consequences other people talk about won’t apply to you — because you’re different, or faster, or more careful, or just lucky.
I was that person at 22. I was wrong, and it cost me six months away from my wife and children and years of repair work that we’re still doing, three decades later.
This page exists because I wish someone had handed it to me then. Not a lecture. Just a steady voice saying: you don’t have to wait until it gets as serious as mine did.
Talk to someone. Anyone.
It doesn’t have to be formal. A coach. A parent. A teacher. A friend’s parent. A therapist if you have access. Me, if none of those feel right. The point isn’t the specific person — it’s that you don’t carry it alone. The moment you say it out loud to another human being, it gets smaller.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 anytime
Big Brothers Big Sisters
bbbs.org
Reach Mike directly
Send a message
There’s always somebody there. Find them before you need them.