Colby's Story

Life Before a Better Way was, it was like, I guess a normal childhood, really. Till I was like 11, I grew up with both of my parents. I went to church every now and then, but it was more like when the, like the church bus would come and pick up the kids during the summer. It was just kind of to have fun, really not like race around church or anything. Yeah, I got into trouble a lot. We moved around a lot. So I just learned that everybody would know me at the new school if I got in trouble often and just acted out. So I get known quick and I felt like I was getting popular real quick like that. So I just learned to be rebellious at an early age. When I was young, I started smoking cigarettes and smoking weed and just falling into the party life. And that turned into me selling drugs. And that turns into me doing the drugs that I was selling, which was everything, really. I didn't really know I had a problem. I thought, because in the environment I was raised around, this is the lifestyle everyone lived. So I didn't really know I had a problem until the feds came and kicked my door in. First time I heard about A Better Way was a meeting with my attorney. Because while I was incarcerated, I was already locked up for a year. And I was trying to get a bond because I was facing a lot of time. So I felt like going to a program was my only saving grace. So my attorney had a client that had graduated A Better Way before, and she recommended this program to me. When I first pulled up to A Better Way, I was just in shock. I was just out of jail for a year. And going from in there with no colors to seeing this beautiful property, it was just amazing, really.

But I was still in shock. My dad brought me here. I went downstairs, and I got checked in. And I didn't know what to think, really. And I got here on Memorial Day weekend, the Friday before Memorial Day. And everybody was playing games and just loving on each other. And where I come from, I didn't never see that before. Yeah, so the structure here at A Better Way, it really caught me by surprise. Just waking up, not being allowed to talk, because I'm a talkative person. People that are younger than me that I don't think know as much as me, telling me what to do, trying to write me up, not being able to cuss. Just all of this, the working all the time and not getting paid, I didn't like that at all. But the work ethic that it taught me, I really needed that. Coming from where I came from and not really ever working a real job, I needed to do all that and learn how to deal with different personalities and bosses that I'm not going to like. Well, the Brotherhood here at A Better Way is the only reason I got through this program, to be honest. Just if I was doing it by myself, I definitely wouldn't have made it. Finding the friends that you can stick it out with and that you feel like understand what you're going through is the only way that I feel like you'll make it through this program. And I've never really had relationships like I've built here. The Florida trip was amazing. I needed it a lot. I got to surf for the first time. And just after going through all the stuff that we go through here and working day in and day out, the vacation was great. I loved getting baptized in the beach,

and I connected with Brother John and Mel while they were baptizing me. And I feel like I came back closer to God. A Better Way has really done a lot for me. It's given me opportunities I never thought I'd have. It's really given me a second chance that I didn't deserve that most people in my situation don't get. And I'm thankful to God that he used A Better Way as a vessel to give me another chance. I feel like fess up, free up is a trick. Andrew Perez found all my snacks I had hidden in the chapel in the house up under the cross. I had like six honey buns under there. And he found them and told the whole house, if you fessed up, you'd get freed up. And I wasn't going to do it because that sounds stupid to me. But he pulled out the Pop-Tarts and I was like, oh, well, it's definitely me. You know, so before I got snacks took from the house, I claimed up to it. And he still took snacks from the house. So Grace House guys, just keep your mouth shut.