An excerpt from Never Settled: a memoir of a boy on the road to manhood (Ch. 1)

“Get up you lazy piece of sh*t!” my father yelled. I woke out of a deep slumber, startled and quickly wondering if I was about to get pounded. My father had a propensity for violence. I was always afraid of him. He was a big man. I was a little guy. “What the h*ll are you still doing in bed?” he continued to yell. At that point, I was beginning to become more coherent and understand what was happening. The problem—I was late for school. I worked late the night before and went to bed after midnight. Even after finally getting to bed late, I couldn’t sleep since I was still wired from work. Looking at my alarm clock, it was 10:20 a.m. on a school day and here I was still sleeping. That was, until this ferocious grizzly bear came into my room.