At 17 A Car Crash Sent Me Down A 15-Year Spiral Into Addiction

Rise Above with Kevin Lanning · Oct 11, 2026 · 1h 5m

Jonathan Gale was a 17-year-old athlete in small-town Wyoming when one lunchtime car ride changed the course of his life. His cousin, driving, inhaled air duster, passed out at the wheel, and their car accelerated into two kids holding hands in the school parking lot before slamming into the gym wall. Everyone survived — but the fallout didn't spare Jonathan. Shunned by his coaches and community and treated as a villain despite being the passenger, he lost his place in the world he knew and fell into the party crowd instead. What followed was a 15-year spiral through weed, cocaine, probation…