“23 Years Ago…”

Life Is… Can Get Crazy… That’s For Sure… 41 Years Have Proved That For Me… Even This Just Past Week Has Proved That…

23 Years Later… And I Still Can’t Sleep At This Night…

23 Years Ago… Some Very Nice Gentlemen Kindly Asked Me To Get Off Their Bus…

23 Years Ago… I Stepped Foot Upon MCRD & Those Yellow FootPrints…

I Always Look Forward Towards This “Anniversary”… Even Though It Is Not The Day I Was Handed My Eagle Globe & Anchor…But It Was Literally My 1st Steps On Becoming A United States Marine…

I Made It Through Boot Camp…

I Made It Through Marine Combat Training…

I Made It Through AirCraft Rescue FireFigthing School…

I Survived Living In 29 Palms, Ca…

I Come Home Safely Twice With 2 Tours In Iraq…

I Worked As A Personal Trainer @ LA Fitness…

I Helped Open The 1st CrossFit Gym In Riverside, Ca…

I Helped Open Another CrossFit Gym In Riverside, Ca…

And Then Opened & Still Currently Operate My Own Strength & Conditioning Gym…

RainCross Strength & Conditioning In Riverside, Ca…

I Have A Beautiful Wife… Danielley…

And One Hell Of A Strong Almost 5 Year Old Son… Ryker Johnnie Macias…

I Know I Normally Post Just That…

But Now I Have More Stuff To Add To The List That I Am Grateful For…

Last Sunday… Coming Home From LA… The Crypto Arena… Attending A Monster Jam Event… My Wife… Myself… & My Son… Were Involved In A Crash On The Freeway That Spun Us Out From The CarPool Lane To The Slow Lane… I Have No Idea How Our Car Didn’t Flip/OverTurn… It Was Not Our Fault… I Still Don’t Know Who Was At Fault… But The Most Important Thing Is That My Family Was/Is Safe… I Was In The Passenger Seat & Took The Most Injuries Out Of All The Vehicles Involved… 4… Maybe 5… Someone Took Off… Once We Came To A Stop… I Immediately Grapped Ryker Out Of His CarSeat & Checked On Him & Checked On Danielley… They Were Both Fine… Just Shooken Up… I Had A Minor Injury To My Head… I Still Don’t Know If I Hit The Window Or The DashBoard Or… I Don’t Know… It Was Nothing Serious… Just A Little Gash/Blood… But There Were Cars Broken Down Everywhere… We Literally Shut The Entire FreeWay Down… The Other Vehicles Involved… Nobody Was Seriously Injured… Fire/Paramedics/CHP Arrived & Checked Us Out… We Were/Are Fine… Car Is Totaled… This All Happened In Chino… My Mom Drove From Moreno Valley To Come Pick Us Up As We Had Our Car Towed To The Nearest Gas Station… The Entire Time… I Had Ryker In My Arms As He As Shaking Like Crazy… Not Hurt!!! Just In Shock… The CHP & Fire Were All Previous Marines… Go Figure… So We Just “Chit Chatted” About My BackGround… It’s Funny How You Can Just Recognize… Marines… FireFighters…

The Next Day… And This Was Already Planned… I Was Scheduled To Have My Interview @ The American Career College In Ontario, Ca… I Was Interviewing For My Next Chapter In Life As A Physical Therapist Assistant With The Intentions Of Becoming A Physical Therapist… So… Still A Little Shooken Up & Feelin’ Like I Got Hit By A Train & A Bandage On My Head… I Got All Dolled Up In My Suit & Tie & Went For It…

I Didn’t Know What To Expect… I Was Still Kind Of Foggy… I Didn’t Know What They Thought With This Random Guy Walking Into This College All Beaten & Bruised…

I Was Already Terrified… Even Before The Accident… I Didn’t Know What To Expect…

I Went From High School Graduation… Straight To The United States Marine Corps… To Being Asked To Be A Personal Trainer… To Opening My Own Gyms…

Besides Any Boards In The Marine Corps… I Never Had To Have To Through An Interview…

Walked In Terrified… Walked Out Confident… Not Cocky… But… On The Drive Home… I Knew I Was Just OverThinking It…

23 Years Ago Today … I Got Off That Bus… Stepped On Those Yellow FootPrints… And My Life Changed…

And Then This Morning…. On The Same Day… Still Bloodied & Bruised Up… I Got The Phone Call That I Got Accepted Into The Physical Therapist Assistant Program…

Not Might Seem Like Much To Some… But To Me… To My Family… To My RainCross Family… It Means The World…

Terrified… Not Gonna Lie…

I’m 41 Years Old…

Walking Around The Campus… I Felt Like I Just Saw These Young High School Kids…

Last Time I Took “Orders” From Someone Was 2006…

But… I’m… Excited…

Excited To What I Can Learn… What I Can Bring To RainCross…

What I Can Bring Home To My Family…

If I Can Take 3 Months Of Drill Instructors In My Face & 4 Years & 3 Months With Some Of The Best Friends I’ve Ever Met… Some… Not So Much… 2 Tours To Iraq… Then I Believe I Can Sit In A Classroom Setting & Gain Even More Knowledge Than I Already Know On How To Help People Live A Life Of…

Long Term Health & Fitness…

Oh Yea…

And We Got A New Car!!!

And Thank You To Everyone Who Already Said “Congrats”…

I Won’t You Down…

OOH-RAH… Semper Fi…

RainCrossStrong…

RykerStrong…

Just… “YouStrong”…

If You Read This Whole Post… You Must Have At Least A Lil’ Bit Of Confidence In My Ability As A Strength & Conditioning Coach… Or… You Just Wasted Your Time…

Either Way… Just Know…

My Family… RainCross… That’s My Life…

This Is Just Another Chapter In My Life…

And I’m Doing This To Benefit ALL Of You…

And Again… Thank You For All The Blessings…

You Have No Idea How Much I Appreciate It…

Mando