Joseph’s Journey: A Story of Resilience, Transformation and Hope

Sep­tem­ber 22, 2025 | By NRCF Recip­i­ent

Hei­di: NRCF Vol­un­teer Spot­light

At five years old, Joseph’s world was already frac­tured — his child­hood marked by insta­bil­i­ty, trau­ma, and chaos. By the time he was a young adult, addic­tion and self-doubt threat­ened to define his life. Yet today, that same man walks the cam­pus of Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty San Mar­cos with qui­et con­fi­dence, earn­ing a degree in psy­chol­o­gy and plan­ning a future as a social work­er.

“I am cre­at­ing the per­son I always want­ed to be,” Joseph says, now 36 years old.

What began as a sto­ry of sur­vival became one of resilience, trans­for­ma­tion and hope.

Joseph approach­es his stud­ies with the ded­i­ca­tion that once elud­ed him as a youth, sup­port­ed by a schol­ar­ship from Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund. Three years clean and count­ing, his trans­for­ma­tion is remark­able.

The Strength to Sur­vive

Joseph’s path to this moment required extra­or­di­nary courage.  His moth­er bat­tled drug addic­tion, and his step­fa­ther was emo­tion­al­ly dis­tant.  He also faced chal­lenges from the temp­ta­tion to join gangs, racism as a half Mex­i­can and half African Amer­i­can young man, and a neigh­bor­hood plagued by crime.

As a young child, Joseph expe­ri­enced sex­u­al abuse from a neigh­bor. That trau­ma, com­bined with strug­gling to under­stand his evolv­ing sex­u­al­i­ty, cre­at­ed strong inter­nal con­flict. “Deep down, I knew I was ‘wrong’ for lik­ing men from an ear­ly age—and that the world would­n’t like me because of that. So, I hid it for a long time, even from myself.”

Find­ing His Voice

Joseph’s turn­ing point came dur­ing an art ther­a­py exer­cise at the age of 24 dur­ing a stay at rehab in 2013. Asked to cre­ate col­lages show­ing his “good side” and “bad side,” he found the courage to reveal his truth to strangers, includ­ing gang mem­bers and oth­ers from jail. “It was the first time I’d admit­ted it to myself, espe­cial­ly in front of this par­tic­u­lar group.”

The response sur­prised him: “These guys said, ‘It’s okay, dude, you’re speak­ing your truth,’ and it moved me like noth­ing else. They let me know it was okay to be gay.”

This moment of accep­tance became the foun­da­tion for his recov­ery jour­ney, though it would take years and mul­ti­ple attempts before last­ing change took hold.

The Pow­er of Com­mu­ni­ty

Joseph’s recov­ery was sup­port­ed by guardian angels—friends whose deaths from drug-relat­ed inci­dents served as pow­er­ful wake-up calls. Their mem­o­ry con­tin­ues to moti­vate his com­mit­ment to him­self.

For Joseph, Nation­al Rain­bow Col­lege Fund rep­re­sents more than finan­cial assistance—it pro­vides com­mu­ni­ty and belong­ing. “It places me round­ly in community—my com­mu­ni­ty. That’s what makes it spe­cial. It’s all about famil­iar­i­ty. We under­stand each oth­er.”

Trans­formed Rela­tion­ships

Per­haps most mean­ing­ful is Joseph’s trans­formed rela­tion­ship with his moth­er. “She is pro­found­ly proud of me,” he beams. He may have been seen as depen­dent and unre­li­able in the past, con­stant­ly ask­ing for help, but now he’s present and self-suf­fi­cient. “I can pay my own way. I’m no longer the rude, irre­spon­si­ble addict she knew in the past.”

Lived Expe­ri­ence as His Super­pow­er

At the age of 36, when many are estab­lished in their careers, Joseph embraces being a non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dent. “I felt like the black sheep—the one who was always screw­ing things up. But you know what? It makes it even more spe­cial and impor­tant now.”

The shame has trans­formed into pride. “I’m not scared or embar­rassed. In fact, I’m proud to be a non­tra­di­tion­al stu­dent. Being old­er and hav­ing lived expe­ri­ence has become my super­pow­er.”

Today, Joseph bal­ances work and school.  He works at the very treat­ment facil­i­ty where he once sought help—a pow­er­ful full-cir­cle moment.

A Mes­sage of Hope

Joseph’s jour­ney reminds us that trans­for­ma­tion is pos­si­ble at any stage of life. His path was­n’t linear—it was marked by set­backs and false starts. Through self-accep­tance, sup­port, and unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion, he’s cre­at­ing the life he always dreamed of in the past.

His mes­sage to oth­ers fac­ing sim­i­lar strug­gles is sim­ple: “Don’t allow it to stop you. Make the choice to pur­sue your dreams.”

In Joseph’s sto­ry, we see not just per­son­al tri­umph, but a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty, authen­tic iden­ti­ty and self-for­give­ness. His jour­ney illu­mi­nates that it’s nev­er too late to become who we’re meant to be—one day at a time.

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