Brant Christner '24 Recruiting Profile

Many would say life is like a roller coaster and they couldn’t be more right. No matter how much I pray, work, persevere, and fight, life will never be easy. That being said 50% of kids in America experience their biological parents divorce while 8.4% deal with substance abuse from a parent. The population of America is roughly 334 million. I didn’t go through some super out of the ordinary situation. That doesn’t mean every divorce is not different. I sure went through a very confusing one, almost could say it was a roller coaster. 

My father struggled from addiction to alcohol, bipolar disease, and anger issues. That made the circumstances so much worse. He was very strong willed and had a strong opinion on things. The build up of emotions usually was always the hardest to deal with. Through 2 years of dealing with this problem I grew as a person, I grew in spirit, and I became a better version of myself. My dad was an alcoholic years prior to this 2 year span. When he was a young kid he began his drinking habits. He didn’t know any better and he had no direction. He struggled with drinking since he started and it got really bad around 2013. My mom and dad decided it would be best if he went to a rehab facility in Kansas. It worked. He came back, went to church, began his AA journey, and let go of the past. Things went back to normal for the next 6 and a half years. Until Valentine's day 2021 he began drinking again. He tried rehab, we tried kicking him out of the house, tried therapy, and everything we could possibly think of. My parents argued every single night. I would come home after work in the summer and my mom would be crying and my dad would be verbally abusing everyone who tried to talk to him. He couldn’t control what he said because he was so drunk and angry. He would wake up the next day crying  and apologizing but then do the same thing the very next day.  I was stuck in a cycle that had no light at the end of the tunnel. The inevitable outcome of divorce was the only possible thing I saw coming. He had given up and put the blame on his kids and wife. My mom made the decision to divorce him in June 2022. It was the most difficult time of my life. I never truly grasped the fact he was gone until my first football game my junior year. He would always talk to me before the games but that was not the case anymore. I lost sight of what I had to do and I shut down. I decided one day to make a change, forget about him and be my own person. Since then I have been doing really well. He was put in the past. I grew closer to God, I got passed it all. I am glad it happened because I knew what not to do. I pray for him everyday but I could not let him drag my life with his. To this day my academics became more important, relationships became key, and life decisions were not taken lightly. I want to be the opposite of my dad which is hard to say, but God has everything happen for a reason and I am going to trust his plan. I began to look at the positive and find strength in weakness. I overcame this divorce through seeking good and finding a way out. Although I wasn’t put through the worst situation possible I still struggled with this roller coaster. I am glad to say that I am better, that I have became 100 times more mature than before, and truly grown closer to God. All in all I learned that looking for good in bad situations is the only way to be happy and get better every day.