The Wretch in the Mirror

OVER 35 COLLEGE students die each week from alcohol related incidents and a military warrior commits suicide every 36 hours - National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. Reading the above heart breaking statistics was my primary motivation for writing this book. For 30 years I have worked as a true creature of the night, one whose calling is to walk through the horrifying real-life nightmares of others. I am an Emergency Medical Technician (A Paramedic)! As a 30 year 911 EMS responder I came to realize I had only truly saved several at risk lives as a hands on life saver and possibly hundreds more as a DUI Intervention Educator. The real potential of saving thousands more by sharing my story of ‘The Wretch In The Mirror’ gave me the courage to pass on the lifesaving lessons I have learned. These lessons were not learned in any of the formal classes I attended but through my personal enrolment in The School of Hard Knocks. The ‘Wretch in the Mirror’ is based on my EMS and military careers of helping others while learning to deal with my own hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I share several stories of my tragic life changing encounters with patients that have remained in my head. I also share how I gradually lost my way to the dark side and the grace that saved my life. "If you inspire people to change their hearts, they can change their minds." - Reggie Davis.

OVER 35 COLLEGE students die each week from alcohol related incidents and a military warrior commits suicide every 36 hours - National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense. Reading the above heart breaking statistics was my primary motivation for writing this book. For 30 years I have worked as a true creature of the night, one whose calling is to walk through the horrifying real-life nightmares of others. I am an Emergency Medical Technician (A Paramedic). As a 30 year 911 EMS responder I came to realize I had only truly saved several at risk lives as a hands on life saver and possibly hundreds more as a DUI Intervention Educator. The real potential of saving thousands more by sharing my story of ‘The Wretch In The Mirror’ gave me the courage to pass on the lifesaving lessons I have learned. These lessons were not learned in any of the formal classes I attended but through my personal enrolment in The School of Hard Knocks. The ‘Wretch in the Mirror’ is based on my EMS and military careers of helping others while learning to deal with my own hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I share several stories of my tragic life changing encounters with patients that have remained in my head. I also share how I gradually lost my way to the dark side and the grace that saved my life. For many in today’s at risk population there is a real lifesaving value in the emotional empathy felt, once exposed to the tragic cost of high-risk behavior. Several successful passion guided initiatives have discovered that (Evidence based) positive behavior changes are enhanced through increased targeting of the affective learning domain. In other words, often the most effective way to reach their heads is through their hearts. This book is dedicated to all those who lost their lives battling their own hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I consider myself a survivor who benefited from their struggles as well as my own. It was the light of grace that showed me generational curses can be suppressed, if not cured. My mission in life is to help as many souls as possible avoid or overcome the type trouble I have witnessed and experienced firsthand. For, there is always a better choice in life, even when we are unable or unwilling to make it.

Reggie Davis has worked as a Paramedic for 30 years, and simultaneously completed a 29 year reserve military career, retiring at the rank of Chief Master Sergeant(E-9) in 2008. He come to realize he only truly saved several at risk lives as a hands on lifesaver, but had the potential to save hundreds, if not thousands more lives by sharing his personal experiences as a student and graduate of The School of Hard Knocks. His life mission, to share his inspirational journey as a lifesaver, prevention educator and the grace that saved him from his own high risk choices. “It was over 26 years ago, around 5:00am, a young medic crawled into an overturned car soaked in gasoline, blood and alcohol to witness three young victims take their last breaths, before rescuers could cute them out of the mangled wreck. At 7:00am he got off work and had his first drink of the day. His only thought of that morning’s tragic episode was how that kind of unlucky accident would never happen to someone like him”. Now near the end of his public servant career with over 27 years of sobriety Davis has several additional job descriptions like Prevention Specialist, DUI Instructor, Motivational Speaker, author and friend. Davis come to accept and understand why most people's minds won’t change from their high risk behavior after hearing him only share the gory details of bad luck, at 5:00am. Sharing his personal story of "The Wretch in the Mirror", to include the grace that changed his heart allowing him to change his mind, has had a far greater impact. “My first career choice was to be a performing artist (A Superstar); the only problem was I had no musical talent”. Today I am the proud father of not one but two prodigies, whose inspirational gifts are helping to heal some of the world’s hurts. They frequently open for me at speaking engagements, not only to entertain but to show others that generational curses can be treated and suppressed, if not cured. "If you inspire people to change their hearts they can change their minds"—Reggie Davis.