Jonathan DePeyer was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971. He was raised in a religious cult until the age of seven, when his mother stole her only son back and relocated. Raised by a Jewish mother and an Irish-Catholic stepfather, he struggled to find his own identity. As a teenager on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Jonathan exposed himself to all of the neighborhoodas bad elements. This is the story of his escape from the life of the cult, his survival in New Yorkas tough Alphabet City, and finally his ascension from graffiti, drugs and violence to the world of athletics, academics and adulthood. This is Jonathanas story, how he left the life of the cult and navigated his way from the streets on the East Side to the beaches of California.