Joseph Maines:  

Life Well, I have two beautiful girls, 14 and 7. I found the job I love - I've invested 8 years with this employer and I am one of the top Diagnostic Mechanics where I work - or at least I'd like to think so. I have hit quite a few "bumps in the road" in my life, but so far, I've been able to work my way through them, thanks mostly to God's grace, and a whole lot of luck! Anyway, I found this website, and thought I'd check it out, because I've always been curious about the lives of the friends I lost contact with all those years ago, and I hope to someday catch up with a few of them. School I was a bit of a loner, and a bit of a troublemaker, but I always kept quiet, and did my best to stay out of trouble. Jr. High and High School felt more like a voluntary prison, than a school. It was more about always keeping my head low, around the thugs and bangers, stay out of the jocks way or get knocked over, keep quiet or someone might think your trying to start something. My freshman year, I was suspended three times before christmas break, because I chose to "defend myself". I spent so much time on suspension, I bet very few people from San 'G' even remember me at all. So I eventually found myself so far behind, after all the suspensions, that I threw in the towel, and dropped out. 2 years later I went back to school, to Pacific, for a few weeks, and then went on to Sierra H.S. (to try to catch-up) - which was a total shock- it seemed like every thug and banger I ever knew, or knew of, turned up there. Well, if you're gonna be sorrounded by bad guys, I thought it best to be surrounded by the one's I know. But, as with every bad neighborhood, the worse it gets, the more you want out. When a few friends got shot, it was time for me to just walk away from all of it. We moved to a different town...Expand for more