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To Wear or not to Wear the Mask

Michael's childhood wasn't one that could be classified as living in the American Dream. He, along with seven other siblings were born into poverty living in the projects on the lower westside of New York City.&nbsp;What so many other children in the 1960's middle class America had, Michael never experienced the love and security that a stable family life provides.&nbsp;At the age of five, due to his parents indigence, he along with his brothers and sisters were removed from his parents custody and placed in an orphanage on Staten Island called St. Michaels Home. This shattered all hopes Michael had for any resemblance of a normal family.&nbsp;While&nbsp;living at the orphanage home, Michael, along with his younger brother Timothy, were than placed in a foster home only to become a Victim of "Child Abuse" at the hands of his foster father for 7 years while his brother Timothy was never touched.&nbsp;At the age of 15, and with help from of his social worker, Michael was able to be move into a group home in the Bronx. The respite only lasted 8 months and returned back to the foster home. This occurrence precipitated the actions that would change Michael's life forever.At the age of 16, Michael's oldest sister Gloria excepted guardianship and to have him stay with her, but that only lasted a few months. Facing another crossroad in his troubled youth, Michael dropped out of High School and ended up working double shifts as a dishwasher in lower Manhattan, but that didn't stop him from studying for his G.E.D. every chance he got.&nbsp;He braced himself for the worst and it had found him.&nbsp;Michael was now homeless living out of a grey beat up suitcase, jumping from one job to another just to survive for the life he was never prepared for.Many troubled adolescents have reached a point like this in their lives and they are faced with choices.&nbsp;The choices Michael made at this juncture in his life are what make his story so Miraculous as well as Inspirational. On November 1st, 1993, Michael was excepted into the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey Police Academy, a Childhood Dream once thought to be impossible to achieve with a such a troubled background such as his.So many wrote him off as just another homeless kid who would either end up in prison or worst, dead before his 21st Birthday. Michael proved them all wrong. Underestimating him was a big mistake. Why you ask? It's pretty simple. He Never Gave Up on Himself.Michael has been collaborating with Critically Acclaimed Author and Screenwriter Ryan Dempsey, to Ghostwrite Michael's biography titled 'm Still Standing. How I Survived a Broken Childhood. Completion of the book will be the end of 2020. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.