My mom would be all at my sporting events. Let’s say I was playing basketball.

Okay, my
mother would be on the bleachers and the play in the court starts going one way. She’d be like
“shoot Mark! Shoot! Then I’d go OH MY GOSH! I get in a huddle with the other guys. They
asked, “Mark, is that your mother?” No, I never saw her before my entire life. See, the greatest
gift that my mother ever gave me. She believed in me. I have overdosed in drugs in three
occasions where I should have been dead. But I believe I was kept here for reason. You show
me your friends and I will show you your future. How do I know this? I hung out with losers and
became the greatest loser of them all because I gave up everything I dreamt of as a little boy
because of who I chose to surround myself with. My friends would drive me home at 2, 3, 4 o’
clock in the morning we’d be drunk and high laughing in the car. We pulled from a house in the
front yard they said “Mark, Mark, the lights on.” I’d go “oh man my mom’s up.” See my mom
wouldn’t go to bed until she knew her son was still away. I’d walk and she would say, “Hi Mark,
how was your night?” “It was good mom I’ll just gonna go to bed.” “Can I talk to you for a
minute?” “Mom! I’m tired!” “Mark, I haven’t seen you all day and all night! Can I please talk to
you”?” Man, just leave me alone you bug me”. I’d slam my bedroom door. I’m the one person
who believed in me I was on a worldwide tour we play ball overseas in Chicago. After my game I
went upstairs and I fell asleep. There was a knock at my door 3 o’clock in the morning. I got out
of bed and I look for the safety window and I could see it was a promoter. So I opened the door
and then he said “Mark, you need to call home there has been an emergency.” I went to go to a
hotel room phone, I called back tonight citizen. I said, “Hey what’s going on?” “They said,
“Mark, I don’t know how to tell you this.” I said, “just tell what happened.” I also started crying.
“Mark I can’t tell you.” I said, “Just say it!” He said “Mark, your mother died.” I just threw the
phone down. I ran out of my hotel room. I took the elevator to the lobby when the doors are
opened up. I just ran out into the street. I mean there were no cars, no people. It was 3 o’clock
in the morning and I walked down in the middle of a street in Franklin and I remember looking
up and just saying, “Mom, I am so sorry!” I flew home for her funeral and I was so nervous to
walk up to her casket so I just way in the back and I kept looking from a distance. I kept thinking
to myself, “Mom, please wake up, please get up.” And I finally got the nerve to walk up to her
and as I got closer. I could see my mom for the first time I mean she was so beautiful. She was
dressed in white I mean she looked like an angel. And I just stood over and I said “Mom, you are
my hero, everything I am, everything I hope to be was because of you. You loved me so much
you gave me a life. You’re the only one that ever believed in me.” How did I repay her? By
getting drunk? By getting high? By getting stupid? By hanging out with losers? For what? All she
ever wanted to do was talk to me. I wish I could talk to you now mom. I wish you could see
what I’m doing. Why couldn’t I have been a better son?

We are defined by our choices but if you surround yourself with people involved in drugs and
alcohol and pills it’s a dead end. I’m not here to preach to you. I’m here to tell you I lived that
life. It leads to broken hearts, broken relationships, broken dreams and death. For what? To get
high? If you have a mother or a father, when you go home tell them how much you love them.
See my whole life was about being rich and famous. I had to be a millionaire. I had to win the
race. I had to win the race to expense my family, my friends for what? To be all alone in the
world? And learned what is truly important and that is how precious this gift of life is, and our
families and how quickly in could be taken away. See I no longer live in time. I live in moments.
She’s not what’s in your pocket that matters. It is what’s in your heart that truly matters. Love is
just a word until somebody comes along and gives it meaning. You, you’re the meaning.