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www.MOSTmag.com || FITNESS MAG A ZINE || 49did her best to provide me with everything that she did not have. Through everything, we were a team, and she taught me how to survive no matter the circumstances in front of us. At the end of the day, I made poor choices that influenced my future and were difficult to come back from. The moment I knew I had to make a change was when for the umpteenth time, I woke up in a hospital bed as a consequence of alcohol and drug use. My poor choices had almost cost me my life, and I was finally ready to admit defeat. I could not comprehend how I had let things go so far. I did not know what my reality was and was full of fear and desperation to wake up and make changes in my life.MFM: What temptation do you wish you could have resisted during this time?CR: Temptation is defined as a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise. I always believe that by nature I was courageous, but to me courage encompassed a feeling of adrenaline and the desire to prove something--whether to myself or to others. In a way I was numbing myself, and I thought that by experimenting with alcohol and other substances, I could somehow be different than who I was. If I could have resisted that temptation, I may have avoided the sad path I followed for quite some time.MFM: Happiest moment in your childhood you will cherish forever?CR: The happiest moment that I will cherish from my childhood is the day that my sister was born, March 4, 1993. I grew up in a single household with my mother, and I had always dreamed of having a younger sibling. Her presence invoked my %u2018motherly instinct%u2019 which has given me the ability to care for her more than anything else in my life. She continues to motivate me to never give up and pave a way of living that she can look up to. It was the best gift that my mother and step-father could have ever given me. Photo Credit:George Kontaxis Photographywww.georgekontaxis.com