Who am I???

Breakfast was a blueberry muffin, biscuit, bran flakes, peanut butter, butter, and milk — half a pint.

Hi, my name is TJ, and I’m an adrenaline junkie. I love anything that gets my heart pumping. I love experiencing new things and pushing myself to new heights. I’ve base jumped from a 40-foot platform into a net, bungee jumped off a bridge, gone white water rafting, mountain climbing, and a bunch of other fun activities.

I’ve been robbed at gunpoint twice (for a grand total of three dollars), experienced at least a dozen shootouts in broad daylight, and had more fights than I have fingers and toes. Did I mention I also have ADHD? I’ve worked for Applebee’s, as a car salesperson at Nissan Automall, FedEx Ground, and the Star-Ledger newspaper company, to name a few — but my favorite job was at my local community college, as a reentry coach. Now I peer coach in my facility and co-own a couple of brands.

One of the brands is The First Day Out Project (fdoproject.org). This brand releases publications geared at helping new citizens, or newly released citizens, get back on their feet. My Queen and I are releasing activity books filled with coloring pages, logic puzzles, crossword puzzles, sudokus, and more. The purpose is to raise capital so we can purchase essential items people need when they re-enter the community. Any book I release will be under this brand.

I’m almost finished with my first book, titled 33 Mindful Tips to Avoid Getting Shot, Stabbed, or Robbed. I plan on sending it out to be edited by the end of this month. I think the release date is set for early 2027 — hopefully I’ll be home by then, on an ankle monitor or some conditions.

Anyway, I’m telling you all this because during the span of everyone’s life, we play a number of roles and play a bunch of positions. Everything I’ve done in my life has led me to this moment. All those experiences shaped who I am and how I see the world. It’s important for you to know what experiences you’ve been through that have changed you and how you view the world.

For example, because of all the negative street experiences I lived through, when I got a professional job as a reentry coach at a local college, I suffered from imposter syndrome — in case you don’t know what that is, it basically just means you feel out of place, like you don’t belong. Of course I did belong. I had just wrapped up a 10-year state bid — who could make a better reentry coach than someone who had literally experienced the transition themselves?

This is also where it got brought to my attention that I may have ADHD. After talking with my psychiatrist, turns out I did. (If only I’d had that tested in middle school instead of at 36 years old.)

Anyway, experiencing imposter syndrome is one reason I needed to branch out on my own — plus I got new charges and had to resign from my professional job. Seriously though, life is about taking risks. Not any kind of risk, like the one I’m being accused of, but responsible risks. My mentor told me to always have a growth mindset, and to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, because it’s in those moments of uncomfortability that the growth happens.

So — hi, my name is TJ. I have ADHD, and I love to take responsible risks.

-TJ