| You are currently viewing a revision titled "Backstory", saved on February 15, 2016 at 12:17 am by C.J. Findley | |
|---|---|
| Title | Backstory |
| Content | Christopher James Findley was born to parents Sarah Powell and Andrew Findley. His parents were young when he was born, only 20 and 21 years old. They married just before he was born and they divorced about a year later. Andrew left the home and was hardly ever seen again. Over the years Sarah would’ve attempted to get child support from him but was hardly ever successful.
As an infant, C.J. was happy and grew and followed the normal pace that infants do. Never really falling behind his peers. It wasn’t until he was a child that he started realizing his family situation was not the same as other children in school. During childhood, C.J. was tempestuous. Due to their lower socio economic status he was made fun of at school and constantly bullied. His Aunt, an art teacher began to teach him how to paint and draw and they found he had real talent. They would attempt to use this to curb his anger and while it worked for the most part he would still get in constant fights with the other boys in school.
The problem escalated to the point that when C.J. was nine years old, he was temporarily removed from school and his Aunt and Mother had to home school him. He returned for fifth grade and managed to stay in school for the rest of the time. His anger and fighting curbed off slightly after that, until he was twelve, when a particular fight with another boy was so bad, he was expelled again.
Having now been expelled from two schools, he had to be relocated yet again. It was until about age 14 or 15 that he relaxed more and got into less and less fights. At age 15 he got his first girlfriend and that helped a lot in keeping him out of that path. He lost his virginity after turning 16 to the same girl. Late high school was punctuated by various girlfriends, some that he felt deeply in love with and some he didn’t see as more than a piece of ass. His troublemaker image had been shed but he still had a reputation for being volatile and unfriendly.
It was then that he started truly honing his artistic talent and considering his prospects for College. While it took heavy work in his Junior and Senior years, and various letters of recommendation from his teachers and Aunt, he was accepted on a full ride scholarship to the Arts program at Virginia Commonwealth University.
At the age of 18, his father was released from jail, having served a sentence of 10 years unbeknownst to C.J and his mother. He reconnected with James and found out he had a younger half-sister that had been born only a year prior to James landing in jail. He would attempt to connect with her before leaving for College but her mother would’ve prohibited it, eight years later he still has very little contact with her, except for the occasional Facebook post.
During College, C.J. did fairly well his first few years. Until his second year when he got yet again involved with another girl. A native of Hathian, but living in VA for a while with her family, she was also at VCU studying Art and had ties to a local gang in Richmond called The Void. She got him into smoking pot, and together their drinking escalated to the point where it began to affect his studies and eventually, he lost his scholarship to VCU. It was around this time he began to take out loans to pay for college, and eventually sought out money from The Void in order to pay his and his girlfriend's living expenses. Over time he sunk deeper and deeper into debt, his life and his grades spiraling more out of his control.
He managed to graduate from VCU but with low grades and low prospects of employment, he followed his girlfriend to her hometown of Hathian, as she had dropped out. There, their relationship continued and they continued to be a bad influence on each other. Constantly drinking, or burned out from smoking and drugs, the couple fought and lead a very tumultuous life which was always punctuated by visits from her brother’s gang asking C.J. to pay back the debt he owed to them. It stayed like this for a few years, with C.J. living on the streets whenever they would break up, or let the gang get in between them, only to get back together a week later.
While living in Hathian he couldn’t hold steady jobs, his alcoholism and drug abuse usually trumping any chances he might have. He borrowed more money from The Void, and went further into debt by asking money for a tattoo apprenticeship which he completed with one of the tattoo artists at the Poison Apple. He took up work there but was eventually fired last year for continuously arriving drunk or high to work and as a result, getting into arguments with patrons and driving customers away. C.J. and his girlfriend finally broke things off entirely last Fall and he has now been working towards sobering up and getting a job to pay off his debt and move on up and out of Hathian. |
| Excerpt |