It’s difficult to explain the purpose of this book. In part, it’s a memoir of significant events in my life, and I will recount most of the events in chronological order. However, telling my life story is not the goal; most of my life was pretty boring and uneventful.
Much of the book is a collection of cathartic writings I did over the last two decades, focusing on events since 2013. A major personal goal was to collect all these writings in a single document. Another goal was to publicly tell my side of the events that drastically changed my life. I hope that maybe it will prevent some of the things that happened to me from happening to others, and maybe some laws can change. However, these laws deal with the very touchy subject of domestic violence and abuse and are very difficult to discuss critically. Some laws have gone too far in their attempt to prevent abuse, but I have no great suggestion for how these laws should change even after years of thought. In the end, I am most angry at the men (and women) that actually abuse their families and have made these laws necessary in the first place.
With that said, before getting to the story of how I spent a year in jail, spent nine months on house arrest, spent many years on probation, lost my job, lost my house, and lost my children, I will provide some account of my early life as it pertains to the events on which this book focuses.