Determined to Change
The Autobiography of Nick Chandler
by
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Excerpt from Chapter 1 Life in Copeland, Florida
In the daytime you could see straight through the wood floors of the house, so you can only imagine what the temperature in the house was. When it was hot outside it was sweltering inside. We didn’t even have a fan to cool us down. When it was cold at night we froze.
Critters crawled all over the house, we had rats a plenty. Sometimes the rats would nibble on our toes when we slept. The worst was the roaches. In
Excerpt from Chapter 2 Moving to the City
The Quarters was its own little community with everything that a person needed. All you had to do was walk right out your front door and you could find what you wanted. McDonalds Quarters attracted not only the Blacks from
The gambling houses and juke joint’s attracted something else that I was not familiar with murderers and hustlers. There wasn’t any “shaking hands” the day after a fight and “being friends” again like we did in Copeland. McDonald’s Quarters lacked the sense of unity and community that we had in Copeland. It was every Black man for him self. I didn’t know how I would survive in a place like the Quarters without the bad aspects of the neighborhood rubbing off on me.
Excerpt from Chapter 3 Beginnings of My Criminal Mind
The house was a filthy mess, clothes were scattered all over the place, it stank of unclean people, garbage and stale cigarettes. My brother was sitting in a chair, heating up a spoon with a lighter, until the heroine dissolved. Then he sat a cotton ball in the spoon and laid the needle on top of the cotton ball and pulled back on the syringe and filled it with the liquid from the cotton ball. He was aggravated because he couldn’t hit his vein. Blood was running down the side of his arm.
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About the Book
This inspirational book is the documented life of Nick Chandler, a man Determined to Change from the only life he knew, the street life; with goons, guns, drugs and money, to a new life as a role model to people struggling to survive child abuse, drug addictions, poverty and emotional pain and suffering.
Born in Copeland Florida in 1961, Nicky Chandler lived a life that many people wouldn't have survived. The ninth of twelve children, his early childhood was one of poverty and abuse. Growing up in the sixties and seventies in the rough and rugged projects, he quickly became as ruthless as the hustlers, dope dealers and thugs who were his early idols. By the age of seventeen the Florida State Prison System would become more familiar to him than his family home.
Surviving seven prison stays spanning twenty-two years, when realeased in January 2007, he was determined to end his self-destructive behavior that kept returning him to prison. With little to no resources or money he began a journey of self-discovery and healing leading him to confront the demons of his past and the uncertainty of his future.
Determined to Change represents the life of a man, who against all odds, has survived, struggled and was victorious to find a new path for his life. Determined to Change reads like a fiction book, however, this true story gruesomely details Nicks life from early childhood to present day. This inspiring story gives readers hope for themselves or others who are also Determined to Change.
About the Author
When I started my journey of self-discovery my hope and prayers were to end my self-destructive behaviors and learn new and positive behaviors that would help me change my life.
In the process of writing my life story God blessed me to see that my struggles and the pain of my past have been experienced by many of my fellow men, women and children. With that, God pointed me to a greater purpose of sharing my story and the steps taken, and necessary, for a new walk in life.
If God can use me to help just one person walk away from a life of pain, addiction and personal hell to a new life filled with joy and purpose I will be MOST BLESSED.