This is a written record of the path to my dream of creative and occupational freedom, breaking the self-imposed shackles that I put on my life by a lot of bad decisions made in my younger days.

I'm going to start with my early teens. There were of course times before this but my earliest recollection of a bad decision that would put me on the wrong path is here. Believe it or not it all started with a job offer.

I was about 14 years old at the time. Just another bright eyed kid with no real ambitions or future goals. There's nothing particularly unusual about that, so far as I know. Life was just about having fun, being with my friends and avoiding the awkward and often unpleasant family situation (more on that later).

So when my older cousin, who at the time was somewhat of a role model for me and also a close friend asked me if I would be interested in taking over his paper route it seemed like a great opportunity and a good idea. I loved riding my bicycle, lived close to the newsagent where the job was and had all the energy and free time in the world.

The job was 1 week on and 1 off, starting at some ungodly hour in the morning (something like 4:30am if I remember correctly) and all I had to do was ride my bicycle around town with a metal basket full of newspapers strapped onto the back and deliver those newspapers to the houses that had a subscription. Easy! And at the end of my working week I would receive a whole five dollars! Five dollars for the entire week? Even in the 80's that was a paltry amount but my parents never gave me any pocket money and the idea of earning my own was enticing.