By Abe Villarreal

I met a guy named Jaime Rose this week. The second we sat down he began to tell me his life story. I didn't ask, but for some reason he felt like telling it.

I knew he had a story to tell. We all do. With him; however, he seemed to be ready to unload, like he was waiting for this moment to open up. Sometimes we are all just waiting for that moment.

Before today, I knew him as that guy that was working for a local agency that helps  people with drug habits get connected to resources. It's tough work finding people who don't recognize they need help and trying to shake them up until they break down and ask for it. That's Jaime's job.

He's out on the streets, shaking things up. Visiting with people on their level. Just an ordinary guy talking to a neighbor and letting that neighbor know that he can come out of his life situation. There is a way out.

Jaime knows it because he lived it. I found that out within a minute of sitting down with him at a coffee shop. I ordered a simple café latte. He ordered some kind of oreo coffee with cookie chunks and whip cream. I knew then that we were different kind of people.

Like his coffee order, Jaime has a colorful past. You can read about it on his arms, chest, and his neck. They are filled with tattoos telling the story of his life. His breakups and breakdowns. His incarcerations. His fights. His helping others. His family. His heritage. His survival.

I drank my café latte. My simple café latte with coffee and foam. No added flavors. Jaime talked. He tried to stop a few times but he couldn't. I didn't want him to.

Listening to him, I felt like I could learn so much about someone that I grew up with but didn't know. He's only a year younger than me but he has wisdom about things in life that I will never understand. How life in drugs can be for someone with no one to lean on for help. How it can lead to family breakdowns, violence, and a record that works against you for the rest of your life. The system can be merciless.

How you can feel like you hit rock bottom and then wake up one day and realize there is no other way but up. How a helping hand from a stranger can lead to a new life partnership, a new family, and a new role in your community.

Life is so complex. One day you're down and out. The next day you feel like you don't deserve all the good things coming your way. I've never been on drugs and I've never been in jail but I know that if I ever had those experiences I would be a stronger person because of what I had to overcome to be standing here today.

So, I want to celebrate people like Jaime. They are the kind of people most of us see from the corner of our eye and think that they are not worth much of our time. We think that what they've been through has made them something less. Something we shouldn't forget.

I don't want to live in a world full of people just like me. I want to live in a world with more people like Jaime. The kind of person Jaime is today. An overcomer. A survivor. An inspiration.

A guy that deserves a coffee-oreo-whip cream kind of drink and so much more.

Abe Villarreal writes about life and culture in America. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com.