“I grew up alone for the most part,” he said. “My ‘half’ childhood, as I call it. My mom had very bad OCD so my brother and myself had to learn how to live unlike most kids. We were not able to hang out with our friends, to have them at our house, that kind of thing. So we grew up alone in a way. When you’re in that kind of situation, you think your world is falling into pieces.”

The night I took a gun to my own head, I had gotten a phone call and was distracted enough, sad enough, tired enough to simply forget to go back to pull the trigger. So I went on another day. And another. And another. I graduated high school, tried out for the graduation speech and ended up delivering it in front of thousands of people—when my grades barely warranted a diploma.

“I suffered some pretty horrible abuse at the hands of my junkie mother,” he remembered. “Among the worst was her attempt to strangle me with an extension cord at the age of 8.”

Some of the hardest times for Jebidiah were witnessing his mom's suicide attempts. One of her attempts happened on Christmas – a moment he’ll never forget. 

For six years, Anthony was addicted to heroin and meth. Certainly, addiction in any form is incredibly difficult to fight through. 

It takes strength and courage to admit you have a problem, and even more to fix it. That is to say, recognizing the demon is one thing; it’s something else to take action and conquer it.

“At the hospital, the doctors explained it to us as if her brain was a jar of glass marbles and someone shook it very hard causing fractures inside all of the marbles,” Danielle said. “They also told us not to Google the injury and stay positive.”

The reason? With this type of injury, there is a less than 10% chance of recovery. 

“His diabetes was always a battle, often struggling during games because of either highs or lows, but never giving up,” Philip said. “All of Brock's hard work payed off and he was recruited by a number of Division III colleges.”

The challenges were not over for Brock, though. Later in his senior season, he developed back pain but always fought through it. Everyone thought it was due to lack of flexibility from the weight loss he experienced during his trial with diabetes. 

In a special edition of our LIFTED stories, APEMAN Ellie Rojas shares a heartfelt and emotional poem that highlights the impact powerlifting has had in her life.