I Woke Up on a Curb in a Clown Costume. That Was My Bottom.

My name is Mike Cinelli. This is the story I never thought I'd tell — and the reason Real Life IT exists.

I didn't wake up to an alarm clock.

I woke up to the smell of asphalt and vinegar, my cheek stuck to a concrete curb, bits of gravel pressed into my face. My body screamed at me from the inside out. I had passed out on a street somewhere, drugged on Xanax I didn't even remember taking.

When I finally got my eyes to focus, I looked down.

I was wearing a clown costume. Purple. Frilly sleeves. Big buttons.

I wish I were making that up.

That was my life after twenty years of heroin, crack cocaine, jail cells, rehabs, homelessness, and running. Twenty years of trying to outrun a pain that started when I was six years old, and my mother died of cancer, and I stood at her casket, unable to reach high enough to kiss her cheek.

Nobody lifted me.

That moment etched something into my soul that took two decades and the grace of God to undo. The belief that no one saw my pain. That I was on my own. That was the only thing I could trust, whatever chemical would make me stop feeling for a few hours.

Crack cocaine. Heroin. Pills. Whatever it took.

I was a pastor's kid from a good family who loved me. I had every reason in the world not to end up where I ended up. But addiction doesn't care about reasons. It finds the wound, and it moves in.

I was in and out of jail. In and out of rehabs. In and out of facilities and programs and medications and promises I couldn't keep. I hurt people I loved. I lost everything — money, relationships, dignity, time.

Standing on that street in that ridiculous costume, I looked up at the sky and said something I hadn't said in years.

God?

I was pretty sure I had burned every bridge between us. But something made me look up anyway.

That moment wasn't my transformation. Recovery doesn't work like that. But it was the moment a crack of light got in.

Five years ago, on May 17th, I got clean. Not through willpower. Not through a program alone. Through surrender. Through finally letting Jesus be the center instead of the chaos.

Through Truth. Healing. Purpose.

Real Life IT was born out of that journey. Because I know what it feels like to be in the alley. To be in the cell. To be in the rehab bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering if this is just who you are forever.

It's not who you are.

Your story is not over.

And if a pastor's kid in a clown costume on a curb in the dark can find his way back — so can you.

I wrote a book about this journey called Reinvented: My Journey of Addiction and Redemption. It's on Amazon and Audible. If you're not ready to take the assessment yet — start there. Hear my story in my own voice. Maybe it'll meet you exactly where you are.

And when you're ready — I'll be here.

— Mike Cinelli

Real Life IT | Truth. Healing. Purpose.