TheLegendsLeague: Stacey
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
The first month was amazing.
The next 4 were a test.
4 years later I feel stronger about us than I did after you made the decision to help me become the man I am proud to be today.
Happy 4 Year Anniversary, baby girl.
I’m proud of you.
——–
For those of you who don’t know:
After just one month of dating, celebrating a small anniversary, she watched as I assaulted an innocent man sitting on his front porch while his kids were inside sleeping, and then punch a police officer and elbow his partner who were trying to restrain me. After being beaten by 6 officers at 14 division and spending the night in jail, I was ironically granted bail the next day with my once abusive father as the assurity. I called my girlfriend as soon as I arrived home and was shocked to see that she hadn’t tried at all to get in contact with me.
“Why would I call you? I knew you were in jail. I’m not stupid enough to risk my safety to be with someone like you”.
After seeing that I was going to potentially lose the best relationship I had ever been in (as young as it was at 1 month), I decided I was going to go sober in order to try to regain her trust and salvage what we had. But being rational about her own well being, she left me for the sake of being safe, considering I had been arrested for more than a couple of assaults in the past.
I was left to go through 4 months of house arrest on my own, as it was meant to be spent.
nearly every day
and every night.
After a short while I received a phone call from her asking if I needed some company and a coffee. I agreed and she came by my house. She saw that I hadn’t drank or taken any perscription drugs since the arrest, and decided to take the risk of spending time with me while I was going through one of the most devistating periods of my life.
She stayed with me nearly every day and every night while I was on house arrest and going through severe withdrawal from the perscription drugs, pain killers and alcohol that I was once abusing daily. She watched me freak out, cry, write nonesensically, throw out some of my most meaningful possesions, break down at any reference to mental illness, become increasingly fearful of my own safety as a result of being beaten by police, and go to AA meetings to try to get better.
began conceptualizing for
TheLegendsLeague.
Expecting to be sentenced to a few months in prison, we went for my sentencing in March 2005. By then I had changed drastically, and we left the court with the judge agreeing that my 4 months on house arrest was enough. He would sentence me to 18 more months probation without any alcohol consumption. Within those 18 months I would save money from working at HMV and a youth center in Toronto to purchase a Mac. I would work night and day on my design skills, and write as much as I could about the things that I had gone through in my life, from bouts with schizophrenia, depression, alcohol abuse, an abusive household, being a young father, and then the new life that I found after I met her.
This is when I began conceptualizing for TheLegendsLeague.
Before my probation was even finished I scored an illustration job for Axe Deodorant through my big sister Rose, and after bringing my portfolio to her agency, I was offered a position as a junior graphic designer. I had never worked in an officer before. I had never done more than a year in college before I realized it wasn’t for me. And I was not at all used to socializing with the types of people who work in office buildings. But only 4 months into my new job I would score the chance to art direct and design the national print and out of home campaign for the Sony PlayStation 3 launch across Canada with my now good friend, Ben Shirinian. My life began changing at an incredible rate from that point forward. And I have refused to look back.
have something
incredibly special.
Most of what has happened in my life from then on has been documented in one form or another through TheLegendsLeague. And now, with the success of Ideall Clothing, I am more determined to make something memorable of what I have to offer.
My girl has always been there to help see me through it all. And I know that I have something incredibly special with her.
I want you all to know that none of this would be here - none of the artwork, the writing, the clothing, the honesty… none of it would be here, to this extent, with this much determination and consistency, if I didn’t have her with me through some of the worst times, to help me see clearly. It sounds incredibly cliché to say that she makes me better. But she did. And still does, daily. She is one of the brightest individuals I know - (in her whole time in university she’s only received 1 mark lower than an A, and it was a B), she is incredibly thoughtful and compassionate, she is rational to an unbelievable point that I cannot ever argue with, and she is such a good girlfriend that my friend and once ex, Maya says, W.W.S.D. (What would Stacey do?), when she’s in a bind with her own relationships.
They say behind every good man, there’s a good woman.
For a man of so many words, I may just have to nod my head and agree on this one.
I welcome my lady, Stacey, to TheLegendsLeague.
Thank you baby.
For everything.
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