September. 2012-
Warning: Before you read this, we want you to understand that we are doing this to show you that we are not perfect in any way, shape or form, we have been down, we faced more than one tragedy, we faced adversity, but most importantly we fought back and saw the light. We hope that you take something away from this blog and we would love to hear any feed back or hear your story.
To Hell
We want you to read this paragraph, then we want you to close your eyes and picture this being you.
4 a.m in the morning, 3 days before Christmas, you’re 18 years old, you’re a senior in high school, and everything in your life is going so well, life couldn’t be better. A priest and a police officer knock on your door, you run into your older brothers and parents rooms to see if they’re all there…Your father is not there.
Your heart sinks to the floor and you ask “where’s my dad?”
The priest and police officer sit you and your family down and tell you that your father has been killed in a car accident.
You can’t process it, you can’t breathe, you’re cold, and your vision is blurry… the only thing you can hear is your mother screaming and crying “Nooooooo!”
Your life has just been turned upside down as fast as you can snap your finger.
You begin to realize that your 18 years of happiness just got crushed and for what reason? A reason nobody will ever know. That so called light of happiness just got a dark cloud over it.
We entered hell at the age of 18 and knew we had a long road ahead of us to get back.
We knew that our ultimate provider, our leader, our role model to mold us into men, our father, wasn’t there to guide us in life anymore.
Our father was a Correctional Officer for San Quentin State Prison. Our father was tough on us, he taught us how to earn and show respect and most importantly we never once witnessed our father disrespect our mother.
Our father always said, “Nothing in life comes easy, you have to work and work for what you want.” Everything he had taught us up in to that point would have to be practiced in the real world on our own. Trial and error as society like to call it.
After his death, we made a promise to ourselves that we would be there by our mother’s side for however long it took us to graduate College.
We would sacrifice not going away to college, we would sacrifice not getting the college experience by living on campus, we would sacrifice not being able to take spring breaks to Mexico like you see on MTV, and we would work to help pay tuition and bills.
This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go down. But we swallowed that pill, that tragedy that occurred, and we manned up and did what we had to do to get through it.
6 Years of Being Lost
Through the ages of 18-24 it was all black roses and darkness.
We were lost, we were angry, we were frustrated, we were mad at the world, and we wanted to inflict pain on others because we had it in our hearts.
We got into fights, our mother became an alcoholic, we lost a piece of her when our father went, and our older brother was as angry at god as we were.
We were distant from our family members, holidays would never be the same, we were on academic probation, we drank 3 nights out of the week, we had been arrested a couple of times, and we spent the night in jail a couple of times.
Our closest grandmother (our mom’s mother) passed away three months after our father did, we had no guidance, no direction, no mentors, we had enemies, and at the end of the day all we had were each other.
The Light
At 25 we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. There came this point where we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves and realized that the only way out of hell is to get ourselves out. We ended up graduating and earning our degrees that year, we invested in a property with our close friend in our hometown, things at home were starting to get better, and everything ahead was starting to look positive.
At the end of summer we kept our promise and left home. It was very hard to leave our mother and brother, but we knew that it was time to be on our own and live our lives and she needed to be on her own to reflect on her past mistakes and grow as a person.
One of the toughest challenges for us through those dark years was to watch our mother that we love so much constantly drink and use anti depressant pills to heal her wounds. Our mother is the best mom in our eyes, even today, regardless if she’s not who she was before the tragedy, we are very proud of her.
And Back
At 25, we remember seeing this guy’s column in a Muscular Development magazine at a store and we were so intrigued by his training and nutrition philosophies, so we contacted him and hired him as our coach.
This was one of the best decisions we have ever made in our lives thus far. What he has taught us apart from training and nutrition has been absolutely priceless and there’s no way we could ever pay him back for it.
The values we have learned, the mental toughness, the outwork attitude, the never giving up, the list could go on.
Everything we had been through when we were in hell for 6 years: all the adversity we faced, all the bad decisions we made, all the pain we inflicted on others, all the pain we dealt with, waking up to a mother that lost her husband of over 30 years, all the darkness, all the negativity…Dr. Layne Norton basically gave us a key to unlock our true potential.
It was as if it was meant to be to work with this man and be mentored by him, it was a sign of guidance. The combination of his knowledge and philosophies on life intertwined with our 6 years in hell brought us to where we are at now, made us the men that we are, it’s made us toughen up, and look life straight in the eyes and take what is ours. We have never ever looked back ever since and we will never take our feet off the gas pedal, there’s no stopping from here on out!
We were finally through hell and back. We overcame adversity even though it was tough; we never threw in the towel or asked for anyone’s pity.
From then on we started Dynamic Duo Training, we got good day jobs, we had our first apartment, our relationship with our mother and brother were good, we took advantage of modeling opportunities, we traveled, we met incredible people in the fitness industry, we invested in mentors, we got certified in training and nutrition, we took advantage of numerous opportunities that arose and we were finally taking what was ours.
Till this day we stay hungry for more because the best of the best desire to be on top, and stay on top.
We just want to make it crystal clear that we didn’t write this to have you feel sorry for us or to brag about our accomplishments.
We wrote this because we don’t want people to think that we are perfect and that our journey in life has been all sun light and roses.
We want to be authentic with our clients, friends, community, and supporters. We want to share our ups and downs with all of you, because we know many of you out there have experienced tragedy.
We want to live a life worth telling a story about, so we can inspire, educate, and motivate you.
Everyone deals with adversity, some more than others, but at the end of the day you still have that choice to live your life to the fullest and reach for the stars, and we all control our own destiny.
You just have to want it more than others and be willing to overcome the sucker punches that life throws at you.
If we went to hell and back, so can you. What’s your story?
Thank You
We want to personally thank you for reading this. It was not easy writing this and publishing it to the world. But we are real, we care, we want to help others, and we want you to know our story. We want to give a special thanks to our beautiful mother, our older brother that we look up to as a father figure, and to Coach Dr. Layne Norton. The only thing that we ask is for you to share this with family, friends, co workers, etc. to inspire and motivate them. If you would like to share your story with us, please feel free to email us at [email protected]