A Shot At Redemption

Redemption just means you just make a change in your life and you try to do right, versus what you were doing, which was wrong.  - Tracy Marrow

Carlos Antonio Rangel, Sr., who goes by Antonio, was born in Lubbock, Texas on April 3, 1975. Throughout his early life he grew up in a small farm town known as New Deal, Texas.

Antonio described life there as “Quiet, but everyone mostly everyone knew each other and that meant that there was always someone to hang out with or somewhere to go with people.” Antonio went on to explain that wasn’t always a good thing though.

Antonio said that hanging out more meant more parties with friends and that meant less time focusing on school. As a result his grades weren’t the best, though he was able to get into a small College at West Texas A&M. Throughout his high school and college life though he was an all-star athlete. In High School he played baseball, football, golf, tennis, and track and field. In college he was able to make the baseball team.

But something horrible happened during his final year in high school. His Mother and Father got a divorce which resulted in him being affected mentally and also resulted in his family being broken apart.

He was still able to make it to college, even with all these obstacles in his way, but while at college his old partying habits came back to haunt him and as a result he had to drop out during his second year due to low grades and then he was forced to give up his dream of becoming a Texas State Trooper. Sadly he didn’t receive his Associates Degree.

After this he moved back to Lubbock, Texas and from then on his life went downhill. He was partying every other day and working whatever job he could find. But while going from place to place he met a woman named Bernice Anderson who he then started to have a relationship with. They dated for 3 years and had a son whom they named they named Carlos Antonio Rangel Jr, after Antonio.

But just like in any relationship they had fights and continued to have them until they both had enough and ended their relationship. Antonio said, “It was hard for me to do, because I know that this decision would change my son’s whole life.”

Soon after they broke up his ex-girlfriend took him to court for the custody of his son and the end result of this was both of them having to move to San Antonio, Texas. Antonio said, “I didn’t like it, but that court decision changed my life for the better.” He said that since he had to move away, his life from Lubbock became just a thing of the past and now he’d be starting over. He had gotten a second chance.

Once arriving in San Antonio, Antonio was able to find a job for FedEx and worked there for a couple a years until he found his job that he would continue to work for, it was a telecommunications job. After a couple more years Antonio would soon meet the love of his life, Norma Rangel.

“She helped me grow up and move away from the many bad decisions that I continued to make, she and my son did,” he said.

He continued on the right path after that and now has two kids and lives in one of San Antonio’s wealthier neighborhoods, Stone Oak. He redeemed himself and showed that if you work hard you can always come back on top.

Right before the interview was finished Antonio wanted to say one last thing to people who are on the same path he was once on.

“I hope that if you’re on the same path I was once on that you decide to change your way of life sooner than I did, so that you may have a lot more opportunities that I was never able to receive.”

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Antonio Rangel Jr. is a Freshman Criminal Justice major at St. Mary's University. He is pursuing a career in Criminal Justice and has aspirations of becoming a Texas State Trooper one day. Antonio is a passionate student and enjoys learning new things as well as putting his knowledge into practice and hopes to help others around the world during their times of need.

Posted April 11, 2019

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