You know, I was gonna get sick or I was gonna get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control, was when and how and where that was going to happen.<br>So, I made a rope. And I went up to the summit to hang myself.<br>But, I had to test it, you know. Course. You know me. And the weight of the log snapped the limb of the tree, and I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power. over. nothing.<br>And that's when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. <br>Somehow. I had to keep breathing, even though I had no reason to hope, and all my logic said that I would never see this place again.<br>So, that's what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And then, one day that logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, gave me a sail.<br>And now here I am. I'm back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass.<br>And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island.<br>And I know what I have to do now. And, I keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?

William Broyles Jr.

William Broyles Jr.