BEHIND BROWN EYES Vol.1

I'm a 30-something year old living in the West Midlands of the UK. I've been through enough highs and lows in life that I've been told by too many people that I should just get it down on paper. A stint in an acute mental health hospital provided the catalyst to start, and though it's been a struggle at times, I've gotten to the point where I've been able to relive the first phase of my life; through childhood, school, the military, chaotic lows, police stupidity, homelessness, and occasionally being able to grasp some of life's brass rings.

My story is one that I doubt anyone will believe is true. But it all is. There are times when I’ve changed some names and locations to protect the identity of others, but that’s it. This is my crazy, messed up story, and I've written it so that others may look back at their own lives and see just how you can slowly put things into context, or even take a completely tongue in cheek look in the past: After all, if you're still breathing, you're still going, and you've not lost.

A fair warning to start. Some of the things that I’ll be writing will shock, perhaps even scare some people. I’m not here looking for sympathy, as I don’t see myself as a SPARE, but I want to be as honest as open as I possibly can. This is self therapy for me as much as anything else, as finally getting everything down on paper may, just may help me put some of these demons to rest.

For the sake of everyone, I will try to anonymise as much as I can. This is not about dragging individual names through the mud, and even though there may be someone one day who reads this who identifies as a *character* in this long, rambling monologue, please know that I am doing all I can to keep this about life experiences, and nothing else.

Today, my name is Wil Vincent. This is the story behind my brown eyes.