eugene WAS ONLY four WHEN HIS MOTHER HAD MADE THE DECISION TO PUT HIM UP FOR ADOPTION. HER DREAMS WERE FINALLY COMING TRUE, AND WHILE SHE LOVED HER only child, HE WAS NEVER PENCILED INTO HER PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AND SHE WAS READY TO LIVE THE LIFE SHE WANTED TO LIVE. SHE HATED CONSIDERING HIM AN ACCIDENT, mistake or inconvenience, BUT THAT'S WHAT HE WAS TO HER, AND HE WAS A REMINDER OF HOW QUICKLY A LIFE CAN CHANGE DUE TO CARELESSNESS. DESPITE HER WELL-INTENDED PLANS TO PUT HIM UP FOR ADOPTION AND FIND A LOVING HOME FOR HIM, HER FORMER HUSBAND AND eugene's BIOLOGICAL FATHER FOUGHT FOR CUSTODIAL RIGHTS OVER HIS SON. THIS MAY AS WELL HAVE BEEN THE BEGINNING TO THE END FOR HIM.

WHEN HE WAS FIVE, HIS FATHERS DRUG ADDICTION GOT THE WHOLE FAMILY IN TROUBLE AND eugene HAD TO HIDE UNDER THE BED WHILE A DEALER SOUGHT HIS STEP-MOTHER AND FATHER FOR MONEY THEY OWED. BEING THAT HE WAS ONLY four WHEN HIS MOTHER RELUCTANTLY HANDED OVER CUSTODY OF eugene, HE GREW UP THINKING HIS FATHER'S WIFE WAS HIS REAL MOTHER, SO WHEN SHE WAS SHOT IN THE HALLWAY OF THEIR HOME, HE HAD AN EPIC MELTDOWN HIDING BENEATH HIS BED. HIS FATHER WAS DRAGGED OUTSIDE, AND eugeneLAID NEXT TO HIS STEP-MOTHER AS SHE SLOWLY BLED OUT. EVEN AT 5, HE KNEW HIS FATHER WAS SCUM, AND HAD THE BRUISES AND SCRAPES TO PROVE IT, BUT HIS MOTHER WASN'T. SHE WAS WHAT KEPT HIM SAFE, AND OFTEN TIMES TOOK THE BLOWS THAT WERE INTENDED FOR JASON. THAT WAS THE LAST TIME HE EVER KNEW WHAT LOVE FELT LIKE. the last thing she told him before she passed was to always do good in the world, so good things would come to him.

EVEN EARLY ON IN HIS LIFE, eugene HAD A TOUGH TIME SEEING EYE TO EYE WITH MANY OF HIS ELDERS AND PEERS. THIS, OF COURSE, MADE HIM A DIFFICULT CANDIDATE FOR MANY FOSTER HOMES OR ADOPTION POSSIBILITIES. IN FACT, HE NEVER WAS ADOPTED, BUT WENT FROM HOME TO HOME UNTIL HE WAS OLD ENOUGH TO MAKE IT ON HIS OWN. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, eugeneFOUND HIMSELF IN TROUBLE WITH ONE PERSON OR ANOTHER. EARLY ON, HE WAS OFTEN IN TROUBLE WITH THE FAMILIES HE WAS TEMPORARILY PLACED WITH. MOSTLY BECAUSE HE VERY RARELY SAW EYE TO EYE WITH THEM AND REFUSED TO CONNECT WITH THEM EMOTIONALLY. LATER ON IN HIS ADOLESCENT YEARS, HE BEGAN FINDING HIMSELF ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW, WHICH EARNED HIM A HEFTY RECORD AND TIME IN JUVIE BEFORE HE WAS 19.

ALTHOUGH HE WAS NEVER LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A FOREVER HOME WITH ANY OF THE FAMILIES THAT HAD FOSTERED HIM, eugene DID COME CLOSE ONCE. WHEN HE WAS IN HIS MID-TEENS, gene HAD FOUND HIMSELF IN THE GOOD GRACES OF A FAMILY THAT SEEMED LIKE THEY WANTED TO KEEP HIM AROUND. HE GOT ALONG WELL WITH EVERYONE AND FOR THE FIRST TIME, HE FELT LIKE HE BELONGED SOMEWHERE AND HAD A CHANCE AT HAVING A REAL LIFE. SO NATURALLY AFTER SEVERAL MONTHS OF WHAT HE CONSIDERED ACTUAL HAPPINESS AND CONTENTMENT, HE WENT AND SABOTAGED IT LONG BEFORE ANYONE ELSE COULD. HIS REBELLIOUS NATURE ALWAYS REARED ITS HEAD AT THE UGLIEST OF TIMES, SO WHEN HE FELT THE MOST AT EASE WITH HIS LIFE AND THE DIRECTION IT WAS FINALLY TAKING, HE PACKED HIS BAGS AND HIT THE ROAD.

eugene MADE HIMSELF HARD TO CATCH UP WITH. IF ANYONE STOPPED BY THE SCHOOL LOOKING FOR HIM, HE DUCKED OUT OF CLASS AND SPENT THE REST OF THE DAY IN AN AREA MANY PEOPLE DIDN'T KNOW TO LOOK FOR. IF THEY THOUGHT THEY KNEW WHOSE HOUSE HE WOULD CRASH AT THAT NIGHT, HE SWITCHED IT UP AND MADE HIMSELF UNPREDICTABLE. IF HE HAD NO FRIENDS AT SCHOOL, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE TO DO. THERE CAME A POINT WHEN HE REALIZED THE SYSTEM WOULD DO NOTHING FOR HIM AND THAT HE WAS NO LONGER IN NEED OF THEIR HELP. AT FIRST HE CONSIDERED GOING BACK, BUT HIS MIND WAS MADE UP. IF NO ONE WANTED HIM, THEN THAT WAS FINE; HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE WANTED ANYMORE.

AS THE TRANSITION IS GENERALLY HARD ON AT RISK YOUTHS, eugene KNEW ONCE HE WAS OUT OF SCHOOL AND ON THE STREETS, HE WAS GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN TO TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF. AND HE DID, IN THE MOST UNSAVORY WAYS HE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE SO. DESPITE NEVER DOING DRUGS, HE DID SELL PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS FOR A SHORT TIME. THESE WERE LIFTED OUT OF THE MEDICINE CABINETS OF HOMES HE BROKE INTO AFTER CASING THEM FOR A PERIOD OF TIME. THANKFULLY FOR eugene, THIS PERIOD IN HIS LIFE ONLY LASTED A FEW WEEKS BEFORE HE SMARTENED UP AND FOUND MORE LEGAL WAYS TO MAKE ENDS MEET.

he was haunted by the final words his step-mother had said to him, which would eventually force him to get his shit together and stop being a burnt out lowkey drug dealer and try to help people instead. for a while, he pulled a few robin hood stunts. using what was left of his medicinal stash to give to people who genuinely needed it. the homeless guys outside the VA in pain, or the family under the bridge who just needed some anti-biotics for their sick kid. it may not have been a savory way to right his wrongs, but it worked. the more he did it, the more things would begin to go his way.

eventually he ran out of things to give to those in need and felt too guilty to steal. he wanted to help, so he began to volunteer, using his free time as an unemployed teenager to get by. funny enough, this was the first major stepping stone in his life.

a local reporter had heard stories about him. not all the details, but just the basics and wanted to write an article about him so people knew that there was still some random acts of kidness left in the world. eugene didn't hold back and used this opportunity to tell his entire life's story, from the day his mother handed him over to his father, to the day he stopped stealing just to make money and started playing robin hood.

of all the things to happen to gene after this article was published, getting a scholarship was the last thing he would have expected. he didn't really understand why he was special, or why anyone wanted to hear his story, but he kept moving forward partially out of curiosity. he often wondered if this was what his mother meant when she had told him to do good so good things would follow. not that he believed in the supernatural, the serendipitous, or anything in between but he also wondered if that was the universe foreshadowing what was to come. if he was asked at any age between 7 and 17 if he saw himself moving forward like this in life, he would've laughed. good things didn't happen to kids like eugene, and they especially didn't happen to people who stole from people.

that wasn't when he got his shit together, though. he would still have some ugly run-in's with the law, but slowly he would begin to get his head out of his ass and trudge forward. he went to school, he did his due dilligence and tried hit every right of passage milestone he could while he had the opportunity, but he would also fall back on old habits during this time. exams? no problem, he could get adderall and sell it. stuck on term papers? easy, eugene was great at bullshitting his way through papers and would happily do the work for someone else if they were willing to pay the right price. he did what he had to to get by at the time, no matter how ugly it could get.

then, sometime in his mid-twenties, he stopped. not cold turkey, but he just weened himself off the wannabe robin hood lifestyle and stopped trying to fight the establishment and rebel. no one was looking. no one cared. so, eugene packed up and left in hopes to figure out who he was along the way.