Conversations with Jonas Rogers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonas Rogers

Hi Jonas, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Oh man, where do I even start. Originally I am from up north, small town called Placerville. It’s a beautiful area, but with little opportunities most preople tend to go down the wrong path. Growing up wasn’t the easiest, I had a mom that always worked and an alcoholic father in and out of jail the first ten years of my life. Most of my memories as a child were the beatings, fights, police and most notably – fear. My experiences as a kid told me that love was hurting those around you, the truth being a well concoted lie, and relationships were conditional. To keep it short, yeah I come from a somewhat dysfunctional family. I don’t blame them for how I turned out, end of the day they did their best. My experiences molded me, but I made my own choices. Let’s fast forward a bit, I turned 18, left home, lived on the river, moved to Puerto Rico – briefly, and then I discovered cocaine. I don’t want to glamorize my use, but at the time drugs saved me from myself. All the pain faded when I got high, for the first time in my life I felt like I could cope. At first it was innocent, but like most drug addicts my using progressed. What was once my savior – now my worst enemy. At this point I am 23, I’m strung out on fentanyl – I’ve watched people die, burned countless bridges, and my best thinking was that I would sell drugs and continue using until it killed me. That was the only path I felt I deserved, the world felt hopeless and my life – worthless. Eventually, I told my Dad I was strung out, that same day I told him he found Miracle House Foundation. I went from shoving drugs up my nose, to a week later in detox. It’s funny, I would dream of living in LA, never thought drugs would be how I ended up down here. I know it took awhile to get here, but this is the comeback part of the story. I spent a week in detox and then another six months in sober living, I went to AA, worked the steps – It was one of the hardest times of my life. I learned about my actions, choices, and how I treated others. It was a full breakdown of who I thought I was. After graduating the house I started working as the night manager and eventually transitioned to the day manager. I have been helping run that house for the last few years. It’s not easy working in treatment, you deal with death, relapses, broken families, etc. In spite of that, the feeling of watching someone come in broken, put in endless work, and fix their life is one of the raddest things. The last three years have been beautiful, I owe my life to my family, the men in that sober living, AA, and everyone who has been a part of this journey. A few years ago I was on the verge of death. Today, I help men get sober, have found love, friendships, went back to school, travel, and I skate every day. I sit back often and wonder if this life is even real. Regardless, I’m immensely grateful to live the life I do.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been far from smooth. Everything I went through before I got sober still fucks with me to this day. It get’s easier as time goes on, but I have my moments. Sobriety is wonderful, but if you ask anyone who’s sober, they will tell you it’s no walk in the park. I have lost countless friends to overdoses these last few years, at this point I am very numb to death, but it still hurts knowing you’ll never see that person again. What I find most challenging is learning how to cope with life, I spent 10 years of my life high every day, any uncomfortable feeling disappeared the second I got high. To go from that, to now accepting life on life’s terms isn’t the easiest. I take everything a day at a time and have faith that what ever happens is for the best, especially when things don’t go my way (I hate when things don’t go my way). Lately, the biggest struggle for me is school, failure is never easy and when you are learning new things failure happens constantly. Life is full of ups and downs, I try my best to strap in and enjoy the ride.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Currently, I manage Miracle House Foundation, we are a non-profit sober living located in the South Bay. This is the same house that I got sober in. There is a lot that goes into this job, but the only thing that matters is my ability to be a mentor to anyone that walks in our doors. I do my best to help guide men on their journey through recovery. What makes us stand out, is that we are not a sober living that people can come to and pass the time. Our program is only six months, it’s important that our guys work on themselves daily to build a solid foundation that will prepare them for the real world. Our goal is to break down each person and rebuild them in a positive manner. We put a lot of emphasis on accountability, character defects, humility, and honesty. Drugs and alcohol aren’t the problem, they are the solution to problems that lie within. To achieve long term sobriety, your actions and old ways of thinking have to be changed completely. Sobriety isn’t only abstinence, it is a state of mind.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have walked a fine line between being a risk taker and flat out reckless. You can live your life in fear of the unknown or take the leap and find out for yourself. Things are going to work out how they’re meant to, whether we like the result or not. “I’d rather have a life of ‘oh wells’ than a life of ‘what ifs’.”, it’s a cheesy quote, but I do love the sentiment. This life we have, is short, in the grand scheme of the universe it makes zero sense, so fuck it, take a risk and see where it leads you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j0nasrogers/

Image Credits
Craig Abell, Mikey Santillan, Leslie Lechner.