Out of the Ashes

The year is 1960. Billy Running Fox is a young Native American with dreams of becoming a medical doctor. From the reservation in New Mexico to ASU to Washington, DC to Vietnam and back, Billy's quest takes him on a journey that is fraught with obstacles, some of his own making. How he handles those obstacles makes him stronger and wiser. Billy always reaches for the road not taken and, in many instances, creates an entirely new road.

I remember sitting in an alley in a pile of garbage, thinking that that was where I belonged-in garbage. I kept rubbing my thumb over the side of my knife blade trying to decide whether I had the guts to kill myself. I sat there a long time thinking about my old man and how he had ended his life. I visualized the same thing happening to me.

Then, I thought about my grandparents and all our dreams, all the hard work and how far I'd come. After a while, I decided it took more guts to live than to die. But at that point, I still wasn't sure that I had the guts.