”When I was a younger child and into my teenage years, I absolutely did not believe 10 years was enough. More so to the fact that in my later teen years I was looking for him….I was willing to meet him face to face and get revenge. (Never found him) Into my 20’s and early 30’s I still believed I was let down by the courts,” Keith shares with Newsner.

Bullied and lonely, Keith turned to alcohol at age 13, masking his pain through substance abuse for over two decades. His twenties were a haze of depression, addiction, and brushes with the law.

It wasn’t until his 35th birthday, on July 9, 2012, that everything changed. During another drinking binge, Keith had a sudden, life-altering moment of clarity.

“I wanted to become a better person,” he says. That decision became the turning point he had been waiting for.