Hey everyone. I always love the progress threads on here and thought I could provide some value by creating my own.
If you want to read my life story continue reading post #1. If you just want the real estate stuff/progress, scroll down to post #2.
Feel free to share life experience, advice, wisdom, questions, or comments. I'll check this thread often.
Intro/early childhood/teen years:
My name is Jack. I'm 26 years old. Spent most of my life in a small town in the armpit of Oklahoma. Population around 20,000. Parents divorced when I was like 11, Dad left. Mom was always at work. I spent most of my waking hours playing Diablo II for a good 7-8 years, and World of Warcraft for another 3 years. Distracted me from reality. My mom made about $7-$8 per hour through her various jobs. We were very poor all through my teen years. Like.. count pennies poor. I had been to restaurants less than 20 times through my childhood because they were too expensive. We ate mostly ramen noodles, eggs with rice, hot dogs with rice, and spaghetti with the $1 rolls of mechanically separated turkey. One time.. I remember pushing pennies together to get me and my Mom an ice cream cone.. it was like HEAVEN.. this was more than 10 years ago.. and I still remember how happy I was to get that ice cream cone that was such a rare occurrence..
The point of the above story.. was to explain why I have such a SCARCITY mindset ingrained in me.
Late Highschool/Early 20's/Girlfriend:
My Mom joined the Army and in 2008 was sent to Iraq for 7-8 months. I needed a parent or guardian to finish high school, so I was sent to Alaska to live with my Grandparents and graduate high school.
I met a beautiful girl who was crazy about me.. which I wasn't used to.. she was second girl I ever even kissed and I was 18! Fell in love.. wanted to marry her.. we gave our virginity to each other because we were sure we'd get married. Her mom didn't approve and never let us see each other. She rebelled. A year later I was working at Mcdonalds. Her mom called me while I was at work told me that my girlfriend had went out with a guy the night before and still hasn't come home.. all night.. and morning. Can only assume what they did all night.. I was so hurt.. that I LEFT Alaska.. and moved back to my home town to live with my Mom when she got back from Iraq.. I worked at Walmart, hated my life.. was so broken from losing the girl I thought I'd marry.. I went back to World of Warcraft and.. every weekend I would get with all my high school buddies and get wasted.. every Friday night and Saturday night I would be drunk.. for the next year.. I remember being at a party on my 21st birthday.. so freaking mad at my ex-girlfriend for cheating on me.. I brought a girl home too drunk to remember her hair color or name.. that was second girl I ever slept with.. Third went the same way..
One day I was complaining about my $8 per hour Walmart Truck Unloader job and a high school buddy told me I should come work with him. Said I'd have benefits and insurance and make good money. So I applied.. and became the youngest Correctional Officer at the local minimum security state prison. Making a whopping $13+ per hour.. and getting paid once per month, still living with my Mom I thought I was on top of the world and I had made it!! Wowww, so much money!! I went from Great Value bread & Diet Dr Thunder to having THOUSANDS of dollars in my bank account. For the first time.. I had savings! And I could buy name brand stuff! I even paid cash for a car! $1300 cash! It crapped out, and I got a car loan for $5500!
Man.. I had made it.. my Lieutenant told me I'd made it too. That I could retire at age 42 and get a monthly retirement check for the rest of my life! And this scared the crap out of me.. I haven't even lived yet!!!
Leaving my state job/discovering real estate:
My ex-girlfriends Mom passed away.. and she became broken.. and at this point I was becoming confident, I had money saved, I was starting to work out.. I was still mad at her.. but I felt so bad for her.. we started talking more and more daily.. she told me how much her life sucks without me and that she wanted a life with me.. she sold EVERYTHING.. I was still mad at her.. she bought her own plane ticket to come from Alaska to live in a small town in Oklahoma with me and start over. Yay, got my high school sweetheart back.
One day at work I met an inmate who was reading a book about selling on eBay, which interested me because I had started selling on eBay. I had sold Pokemon cards, silver dollars, and even bought android tablets from China and resold them on eBay back when the first iPad came out. Was buying like 5 at a time, making $30-40 profit each. Not bad!
This inmate told me that I HAD to read this book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad.. I told him I hadn't read a book in at least a few years since high school. And he kept insisting and even made me borrow his copy. So I read it.. and learned about Real Estate, and omg I hadn't been that excited about anything in my life. I didn't go to college, so I was always looking for that "how to get rich" and this was the answer! Next I read Armondo Montelongo's book.. "Flip & Grow Rich." This guy was making $20k-$30k on one house flip!! that was like my yearly salary at the prison!! I had to do this!!
Chasing dreams/adulting:
So a couple months after I had devoured Rich Dad and a few other real estate books, I made a plan to move to "The city" to go to college for real estate. Cuz college is how you learn things, right? That's what I thought. But me and my girlfriend got our first apartment away from parents.. found out that deposits suck and life is more expensive than it looks! lol we both got whatever jobs we could.. I was a car salesman, jimmy johns driver, wire delivery guy for Locke, 7-eleven clerk.. for the next 8-9 months shuffling between jobs. Then I got fired from 7-eleven for not ID-ing someone for a cigar..
And instead of looking for another job, I stopped and thought to myself.. I came here to do real estate, and I'm not doing it.. What the heck!
Next.. I messaged every single "We Buy Houses" ad I could find on Craigslist and nobody wanted to teach me or train me.. they said they either didn't need help, or they didn't want to train their competition.. then finally one asked me to come in and interview..
He realized how "green" I was.. and told me before he hired me, I would have to read 2 books on negotiation and go to real estate school to become a Realtor. I didn't have to get my license, but he just wanted me to learn the terms and basics of legal descriptions and how contracts work and all that good stuff. He paid for it. Then put me on a 90 day training program that paid me $1600 per month. I shadowed his acquisition manager for the first 30 days. Going on appointments, learning the different parts of the city, where the nicer homes were, where different demographics lived, etc.. I did random office work for them and sold stuff on ebay for them, then started to list properties for them on VFlyer and Craigslist every day. And after my 3 months was up, I became a full time commission only "Selling Solutions Specialist" and sold their properties. For every sale I made, I was given $1000. Usually 2-3 per month. Not that great.
Me and my girlfriend hated our apartment.. it was $419 per month and super ghetto.. we had a meth head downstairs who liked to blare his stereo to show his friends how loud it would go and not "blow out"
we called the cops on him, then he became even more of an a**hole.. and would call the cops on us for making the floor squeak. One day we found a new looking Klick-Klack couch and brought it in the apartment.. we enjoyed it for one night, then woke up itchy, scratchy, bumpy... OH GREAT BED BUGS!! Added to our hatred of apartments..
My first flip:
I started looking for a house for us to live in.. found a trailer house.. spent all my savings on it.. paid $3200 for this 2 bedroom trailer.. but it needed windows replaced and needed a 220 put in for the stove, and some flooring replaced.. I didn't know how to do any of that and I was out of money!! so I quickly resold the trailer for $4200, and after taxes I made $940 or so!! my first "flip!" it felt sooooo good!!
A couple months later.. I was feeling unfulfilled with my "job" in real estate making about $2k per month..
So I continued my reading about real estate and discovered "wholesaling".. and I bought my first batch of bandit signs.. 100 signs cost me about $255? me and my girlfriend put them out one night.. and got like 8 calls! What a great response! and one of the calls was a Realtor who told me one of her clients was a kid who had just lost his mother in October, and the house had caught fire in November. He needed $20,000.
I tried to negotiate and she said nope. Take it or leave it. I went to the local real estate investor association and asked around to find someone who could handle a fix and flip property that had a fire.. found the guy and he asked me how much I wanted for it. I told him I could make $1000 by bringing it to my job, but hopefully he's more generous. I crossed my fingers and asked for $2000. And he said, I can do that!
Woohoo!!!! most money I've ever made in my LIFE!!! I stared at that check sooooo long!!
At this time me and my girlfriend were closing on a HUD home for us to live in personally. Woohoo, got out of that crappy apartment! Got ourselves a nice 1560 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath 2 car garage brick house for $50k! Worth about $95k. Great deal! Took 4 months of looking. Needed paint/carpet/cosmetics.
I started looking into other types of marketing, and of course I bought more bandit signs. And then me and a roommate sent 660 hand written yellow letters, made another $1800 each, then I found another fire damaged property.. listed on Craigslist for $27,000. I called the guy and told him nobody in their right mind is gonna pay that much for a house that has 3 standing walls. How much do you really need? He told me $5k to move and start his life over. So I gave him the $5k, plus paid his $3800 in back taxes.. I sold that house to the same guy that bought my last burnout property.. and I "double closed" it and made $6,800!!!!! OMG!!
I quit my job and the rest is history.. lol
Went stupid, got in debt:
I went kind of crazy and stupid.. spent 2 weeks vacationing lavishly with beach side hotels in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, and paid for me and my girlfriend to go on a week long cruise.. three times.. and a few weeks in Alaska, went on a halibut charter for like $500, went on several other mini vacations, just enjoying life and money. Never had it before! Well.. instead of sticking to wholesaling, I tried to flip a house.. with a partner.. ended up losing $14,000 on credit cards the deal was.. partner pays labor, i buy materials on my credit cards.... dropped my credit score 140 points.. and I went into kind of a depression like a loser.. quit working.. put everything on credit cards.. racked up $20k in credit card debt through all this.
October 2016, Girlfriend left me:
Went to a party.. got super drunk.. ended up in bed with my girlfriend and another one of our girl friends.. tiny little twin bed.. I ended up cuddling with that girl and touched her butt and tits.. felt TERRIBLE the next day... to be transparent, i told my girlfriend.. there were no feelings behind it.. but it still messed her up.. she played it off like it didn't bother her.. but over the next few months, i felt her drifting away from me. She felt ugly, unloved, betrayed, etc.. we drifted apart.. and I felt it.. but she denied it and wouldn't talk to me about it.. I had been with her 5 years at this point.. and she eventually told me I had commitment issues cuz i didn't marry her or have kids with her after 5 years.. and she left me. She went back to Alaska to be with her family, she had nothing here but me. She left her car, her pets, me, the house, EVERYTHING. I just donated her clothes yesterday.. trying to sell her van.. told her I'd send her the money.. she sent me a picture of her new boyfriend and her then blocked me on Facebook.. she's already moved in with a new guy and it's been less than 35 days since she left..
October 12, 2016 - Motorcycle wreck:
After she moved.. I went kind of crazy.. I told myself, I'm going to be successful in spite of this BS!! I was angry.. and I felt this ridiculous energy.. I woke up like a drone every morning, before my alarm, with anger.. I worked out hard, with clarity, and anger.. I went to work, with angry energy, I bought a house and sold it, in the same day.. angry energy kept me clear.. I kept saying in my head "F**K EVERYTHING"
I was in make money mode and I bought a 170cc Scooter for $500, was worth like $1500. So I traded that, plus $2000 for a 2008 Yamaha fz6 600cc sport bike.. I was gonna flip it for $3500 and make $1k profit.
But I was angry all the time.. and I drove that thing home while pissed off.. coming on the interstate like a dumb*** at 100mph.. front tire about to come off the ground.. pushing it too far.. but made it..
The next morning I was on my way to pick up a paycheck.. and then head to the gym.. I had owned the bike less than 15 hours.. didn't have insurance on it yet.. I was wearing wind pants, a hoodie, and nikes.. going to the gym afterwards... It was 9:05am.. on October 12th.. I was coming onto the interstate.. just shifted to second gear.. I looked down and the speedo said 96mph.. a car pulled in front of me going like 50mph and there was a car to the left of him going about 60.. I couldn't get between them fast enough.. and I tried to brake but it was too late.. the bike laid over to the right and I rolled to the left.. I closed my eyes as I hit the ground.. and when I opened my eyes I remember I couldn't stop rolling.. I had hit my head on the pavement, and i kept rolling so I covered my face with my arms.. and I rolled across 3 lanes of interstate.. SOMEHOW.. through luck and grace.. neither I.. or the bike hit anyone or anything.. I had so much freaking adrenaline that I stood right up and looked for my glasses, wallet, phone... couldn't find my glasses, but I found my wallet and phone.. phone was shattered... my wind pants were shredded.. my legs were bleeding, my shoe got ripped off my right foot.. blood was dripping down my face where my head had hit.. the sleeves of my hoodie was shredded where I had covered my face to protect it from scraping on the concrete.. scraped up my elbows, hands, and knuckles instead.. my ankle and toes had scraped along the highway, I lost about 5% of the epidermis around my ankle.. it's been 19 days and my ankle is still raw and draining.. and my right knee is 90% healed but still open.. and both elbows..
Traffic stopped.. 5 different people came around me and got on their cell phones calling 911.. ambulance came, 2 fire trucks, and 2 police officers.. I didn't have health insurance.. or insurance on the motorcycle... police officer gave me a ticket for no motorcycle endorsement and no insurance.. ugh.. I was so pissed at myself on the ambulance.. I kept telling them I couldn't afford it.. and that i didn't have insurance.. and they told me I was too messed up to let me go.. they took me to a Baptist hospital that had a well known burn center.. because road rash is treated the same as burns. They got me all wrapped up.. so without insurance, the bill came to $24,500.. plus the tickets from the police officer.. but luckily the hospital adjusted the bill for "self-pay cash discount" and brought it down to $9,000. Still sucks though.
I couldn't lay down/sit/exist without hurting for 5 days, I couldn't shower for 8 days.. I couldn't drive for 17 days.. and probably won't go back to the gym until day 30.. but the doctor and the nurses all said I'm recovering super fast.. they thought it would be months. But... I'm determined to get my life back..
If you want to read my life story continue reading post #1. If you just want the real estate stuff/progress, scroll down to post #2.
Feel free to share life experience, advice, wisdom, questions, or comments. I'll check this thread often.
Intro/early childhood/teen years:
My name is Jack. I'm 26 years old. Spent most of my life in a small town in the armpit of Oklahoma. Population around 20,000. Parents divorced when I was like 11, Dad left. Mom was always at work. I spent most of my waking hours playing Diablo II for a good 7-8 years, and World of Warcraft for another 3 years. Distracted me from reality. My mom made about $7-$8 per hour through her various jobs. We were very poor all through my teen years. Like.. count pennies poor. I had been to restaurants less than 20 times through my childhood because they were too expensive. We ate mostly ramen noodles, eggs with rice, hot dogs with rice, and spaghetti with the $1 rolls of mechanically separated turkey. One time.. I remember pushing pennies together to get me and my Mom an ice cream cone.. it was like HEAVEN.. this was more than 10 years ago.. and I still remember how happy I was to get that ice cream cone that was such a rare occurrence..
The point of the above story.. was to explain why I have such a SCARCITY mindset ingrained in me.
Late Highschool/Early 20's/Girlfriend:
My Mom joined the Army and in 2008 was sent to Iraq for 7-8 months. I needed a parent or guardian to finish high school, so I was sent to Alaska to live with my Grandparents and graduate high school.
I met a beautiful girl who was crazy about me.. which I wasn't used to.. she was second girl I ever even kissed and I was 18! Fell in love.. wanted to marry her.. we gave our virginity to each other because we were sure we'd get married. Her mom didn't approve and never let us see each other. She rebelled. A year later I was working at Mcdonalds. Her mom called me while I was at work told me that my girlfriend had went out with a guy the night before and still hasn't come home.. all night.. and morning. Can only assume what they did all night.. I was so hurt.. that I LEFT Alaska.. and moved back to my home town to live with my Mom when she got back from Iraq.. I worked at Walmart, hated my life.. was so broken from losing the girl I thought I'd marry.. I went back to World of Warcraft and.. every weekend I would get with all my high school buddies and get wasted.. every Friday night and Saturday night I would be drunk.. for the next year.. I remember being at a party on my 21st birthday.. so freaking mad at my ex-girlfriend for cheating on me.. I brought a girl home too drunk to remember her hair color or name.. that was second girl I ever slept with.. Third went the same way..
One day I was complaining about my $8 per hour Walmart Truck Unloader job and a high school buddy told me I should come work with him. Said I'd have benefits and insurance and make good money. So I applied.. and became the youngest Correctional Officer at the local minimum security state prison. Making a whopping $13+ per hour.. and getting paid once per month, still living with my Mom I thought I was on top of the world and I had made it!! Wowww, so much money!! I went from Great Value bread & Diet Dr Thunder to having THOUSANDS of dollars in my bank account. For the first time.. I had savings! And I could buy name brand stuff! I even paid cash for a car! $1300 cash! It crapped out, and I got a car loan for $5500!
Man.. I had made it.. my Lieutenant told me I'd made it too. That I could retire at age 42 and get a monthly retirement check for the rest of my life! And this scared the crap out of me.. I haven't even lived yet!!!
Leaving my state job/discovering real estate:
My ex-girlfriends Mom passed away.. and she became broken.. and at this point I was becoming confident, I had money saved, I was starting to work out.. I was still mad at her.. but I felt so bad for her.. we started talking more and more daily.. she told me how much her life sucks without me and that she wanted a life with me.. she sold EVERYTHING.. I was still mad at her.. she bought her own plane ticket to come from Alaska to live in a small town in Oklahoma with me and start over. Yay, got my high school sweetheart back.
One day at work I met an inmate who was reading a book about selling on eBay, which interested me because I had started selling on eBay. I had sold Pokemon cards, silver dollars, and even bought android tablets from China and resold them on eBay back when the first iPad came out. Was buying like 5 at a time, making $30-40 profit each. Not bad!
This inmate told me that I HAD to read this book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad.. I told him I hadn't read a book in at least a few years since high school. And he kept insisting and even made me borrow his copy. So I read it.. and learned about Real Estate, and omg I hadn't been that excited about anything in my life. I didn't go to college, so I was always looking for that "how to get rich" and this was the answer! Next I read Armondo Montelongo's book.. "Flip & Grow Rich." This guy was making $20k-$30k on one house flip!! that was like my yearly salary at the prison!! I had to do this!!
Chasing dreams/adulting:
So a couple months after I had devoured Rich Dad and a few other real estate books, I made a plan to move to "The city" to go to college for real estate. Cuz college is how you learn things, right? That's what I thought. But me and my girlfriend got our first apartment away from parents.. found out that deposits suck and life is more expensive than it looks! lol we both got whatever jobs we could.. I was a car salesman, jimmy johns driver, wire delivery guy for Locke, 7-eleven clerk.. for the next 8-9 months shuffling between jobs. Then I got fired from 7-eleven for not ID-ing someone for a cigar..
And instead of looking for another job, I stopped and thought to myself.. I came here to do real estate, and I'm not doing it.. What the heck!
Next.. I messaged every single "We Buy Houses" ad I could find on Craigslist and nobody wanted to teach me or train me.. they said they either didn't need help, or they didn't want to train their competition.. then finally one asked me to come in and interview..
He realized how "green" I was.. and told me before he hired me, I would have to read 2 books on negotiation and go to real estate school to become a Realtor. I didn't have to get my license, but he just wanted me to learn the terms and basics of legal descriptions and how contracts work and all that good stuff. He paid for it. Then put me on a 90 day training program that paid me $1600 per month. I shadowed his acquisition manager for the first 30 days. Going on appointments, learning the different parts of the city, where the nicer homes were, where different demographics lived, etc.. I did random office work for them and sold stuff on ebay for them, then started to list properties for them on VFlyer and Craigslist every day. And after my 3 months was up, I became a full time commission only "Selling Solutions Specialist" and sold their properties. For every sale I made, I was given $1000. Usually 2-3 per month. Not that great.
Me and my girlfriend hated our apartment.. it was $419 per month and super ghetto.. we had a meth head downstairs who liked to blare his stereo to show his friends how loud it would go and not "blow out"
we called the cops on him, then he became even more of an a**hole.. and would call the cops on us for making the floor squeak. One day we found a new looking Klick-Klack couch and brought it in the apartment.. we enjoyed it for one night, then woke up itchy, scratchy, bumpy... OH GREAT BED BUGS!! Added to our hatred of apartments..
My first flip:
I started looking for a house for us to live in.. found a trailer house.. spent all my savings on it.. paid $3200 for this 2 bedroom trailer.. but it needed windows replaced and needed a 220 put in for the stove, and some flooring replaced.. I didn't know how to do any of that and I was out of money!! so I quickly resold the trailer for $4200, and after taxes I made $940 or so!! my first "flip!" it felt sooooo good!!
A couple months later.. I was feeling unfulfilled with my "job" in real estate making about $2k per month..
So I continued my reading about real estate and discovered "wholesaling".. and I bought my first batch of bandit signs.. 100 signs cost me about $255? me and my girlfriend put them out one night.. and got like 8 calls! What a great response! and one of the calls was a Realtor who told me one of her clients was a kid who had just lost his mother in October, and the house had caught fire in November. He needed $20,000.
I tried to negotiate and she said nope. Take it or leave it. I went to the local real estate investor association and asked around to find someone who could handle a fix and flip property that had a fire.. found the guy and he asked me how much I wanted for it. I told him I could make $1000 by bringing it to my job, but hopefully he's more generous. I crossed my fingers and asked for $2000. And he said, I can do that!
Woohoo!!!! most money I've ever made in my LIFE!!! I stared at that check sooooo long!!
At this time me and my girlfriend were closing on a HUD home for us to live in personally. Woohoo, got out of that crappy apartment! Got ourselves a nice 1560 sq ft 3 bed 2 bath 2 car garage brick house for $50k! Worth about $95k. Great deal! Took 4 months of looking. Needed paint/carpet/cosmetics.
I started looking into other types of marketing, and of course I bought more bandit signs. And then me and a roommate sent 660 hand written yellow letters, made another $1800 each, then I found another fire damaged property.. listed on Craigslist for $27,000. I called the guy and told him nobody in their right mind is gonna pay that much for a house that has 3 standing walls. How much do you really need? He told me $5k to move and start his life over. So I gave him the $5k, plus paid his $3800 in back taxes.. I sold that house to the same guy that bought my last burnout property.. and I "double closed" it and made $6,800!!!!! OMG!!
I quit my job and the rest is history.. lol
Went stupid, got in debt:
I went kind of crazy and stupid.. spent 2 weeks vacationing lavishly with beach side hotels in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, and paid for me and my girlfriend to go on a week long cruise.. three times.. and a few weeks in Alaska, went on a halibut charter for like $500, went on several other mini vacations, just enjoying life and money. Never had it before! Well.. instead of sticking to wholesaling, I tried to flip a house.. with a partner.. ended up losing $14,000 on credit cards the deal was.. partner pays labor, i buy materials on my credit cards.... dropped my credit score 140 points.. and I went into kind of a depression like a loser.. quit working.. put everything on credit cards.. racked up $20k in credit card debt through all this.
October 2016, Girlfriend left me:
Went to a party.. got super drunk.. ended up in bed with my girlfriend and another one of our girl friends.. tiny little twin bed.. I ended up cuddling with that girl and touched her butt and tits.. felt TERRIBLE the next day... to be transparent, i told my girlfriend.. there were no feelings behind it.. but it still messed her up.. she played it off like it didn't bother her.. but over the next few months, i felt her drifting away from me. She felt ugly, unloved, betrayed, etc.. we drifted apart.. and I felt it.. but she denied it and wouldn't talk to me about it.. I had been with her 5 years at this point.. and she eventually told me I had commitment issues cuz i didn't marry her or have kids with her after 5 years.. and she left me. She went back to Alaska to be with her family, she had nothing here but me. She left her car, her pets, me, the house, EVERYTHING. I just donated her clothes yesterday.. trying to sell her van.. told her I'd send her the money.. she sent me a picture of her new boyfriend and her then blocked me on Facebook.. she's already moved in with a new guy and it's been less than 35 days since she left..
October 12, 2016 - Motorcycle wreck:
After she moved.. I went kind of crazy.. I told myself, I'm going to be successful in spite of this BS!! I was angry.. and I felt this ridiculous energy.. I woke up like a drone every morning, before my alarm, with anger.. I worked out hard, with clarity, and anger.. I went to work, with angry energy, I bought a house and sold it, in the same day.. angry energy kept me clear.. I kept saying in my head "F**K EVERYTHING"
I was in make money mode and I bought a 170cc Scooter for $500, was worth like $1500. So I traded that, plus $2000 for a 2008 Yamaha fz6 600cc sport bike.. I was gonna flip it for $3500 and make $1k profit.
But I was angry all the time.. and I drove that thing home while pissed off.. coming on the interstate like a dumb*** at 100mph.. front tire about to come off the ground.. pushing it too far.. but made it..
The next morning I was on my way to pick up a paycheck.. and then head to the gym.. I had owned the bike less than 15 hours.. didn't have insurance on it yet.. I was wearing wind pants, a hoodie, and nikes.. going to the gym afterwards... It was 9:05am.. on October 12th.. I was coming onto the interstate.. just shifted to second gear.. I looked down and the speedo said 96mph.. a car pulled in front of me going like 50mph and there was a car to the left of him going about 60.. I couldn't get between them fast enough.. and I tried to brake but it was too late.. the bike laid over to the right and I rolled to the left.. I closed my eyes as I hit the ground.. and when I opened my eyes I remember I couldn't stop rolling.. I had hit my head on the pavement, and i kept rolling so I covered my face with my arms.. and I rolled across 3 lanes of interstate.. SOMEHOW.. through luck and grace.. neither I.. or the bike hit anyone or anything.. I had so much freaking adrenaline that I stood right up and looked for my glasses, wallet, phone... couldn't find my glasses, but I found my wallet and phone.. phone was shattered... my wind pants were shredded.. my legs were bleeding, my shoe got ripped off my right foot.. blood was dripping down my face where my head had hit.. the sleeves of my hoodie was shredded where I had covered my face to protect it from scraping on the concrete.. scraped up my elbows, hands, and knuckles instead.. my ankle and toes had scraped along the highway, I lost about 5% of the epidermis around my ankle.. it's been 19 days and my ankle is still raw and draining.. and my right knee is 90% healed but still open.. and both elbows..
Traffic stopped.. 5 different people came around me and got on their cell phones calling 911.. ambulance came, 2 fire trucks, and 2 police officers.. I didn't have health insurance.. or insurance on the motorcycle... police officer gave me a ticket for no motorcycle endorsement and no insurance.. ugh.. I was so pissed at myself on the ambulance.. I kept telling them I couldn't afford it.. and that i didn't have insurance.. and they told me I was too messed up to let me go.. they took me to a Baptist hospital that had a well known burn center.. because road rash is treated the same as burns. They got me all wrapped up.. so without insurance, the bill came to $24,500.. plus the tickets from the police officer.. but luckily the hospital adjusted the bill for "self-pay cash discount" and brought it down to $9,000. Still sucks though.
I couldn't lay down/sit/exist without hurting for 5 days, I couldn't shower for 8 days.. I couldn't drive for 17 days.. and probably won't go back to the gym until day 30.. but the doctor and the nurses all said I'm recovering super fast.. they thought it would be months. But... I'm determined to get my life back..
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