It's 9AM
And I'd like to tell myself, "Self, here's what you do."
GO PRESS PLAY
I told you last week that Facebook changed
But every now and then, something gold pops up
Like a nugget of hidden treasure
Or a rare diamond from the mudfields at the diamond crater mine
There’s a guy in Pine Bluff, my hometown who posts “news”
It’s mostly burning cars, or wrecks or police pull overs
And a lot of cars running into buildings which happens with surprising frequency
At least once a week, sometimes more
I don’t know if it’s the social aspect that we just know when it happens now and the amount of occurrences are the same
Or if it’s like I suspect
And it’s just bad drivers doing it more
Maybe that’s what happens when you drive high
Or learned to drive playing GTA on a gaming system and have no idea how a car operates in real life
Or lay all the way back when you drive, so you can barely see over the dash but it makes thumping bumps and blowing blunts easier
Maybe all three
Or maybe the two or three car crashes into a building headlines by a local “magazine” is just a way to get views
I know ...
I look closely at the pics
But this guy found a yearbook and posted the pages online
It just so happened to be from the year I graduated
And it just so happened to have the above page pictured
And that’s me, in glorious black and white
Seventeen years old, and full of fight and ready to take all that rage and piss and vinegar across an ocean months later
A wide eyed optimist who had one thought above all else
“I’ll figure it out.”
My friends were smarter than me
And they had bigger plans than me
Bigger better schools, bigger better careers, because way back in 1987 when that pic was taken
College was being pitched as the ultimate way to achieve the American dream
But that kid in all his black and white glory wasn’t quite aware of what was in store for him in the big wide real world
Maybe if someone told him the truth, he wouldn’t believe them
But in all that living
And there has been a lot of it
Some truth about that kid was uncovered
Grit
The ability to keep going in the face of overwhelming odds
The belief that he’ll figure it out
No matter what it is
And it’s true
Even today
I look at what my city used to be, glossed over pictures that hide the reality
It looks like a fairy tale
Except here’s the reality
The first 4 blocks you’re looking at on Main Street?
99% of the buildings are empty and derelict
With out of state owners who bought them cheap and are pricing them so they stay empty
Some for four or five decades…
And that kid in the picture?
Worked in one of the buildings on the left side of the picture
And four decades later, had some ideas on how to make the reality on the ground match the picture in his head
Yet…
It hasn’t happened yet
It may not happen
And no amount of grit can solve it
Because of… factors
Things we have discussed before and things we will discuss again
But the shine is starting to fade from that idea as more rise up to take it’s place
Which goes back to advice I’d give that bright eyed boy in the picture
Never fall in love with your ideas, your ideals or your opinions
Because almost all of them rely on “It depends.”
And then I’d tell him to buy Wal Mart at $28, which is what I think it was trading at around that time.
IT’S 9AM
Every morning is a second chance.
Most people miss it.
Chris Lowry writes it down.
It’s 9AM is a raw, unfiltered, quietly powerful collection of personal essays from the writer of the hit daily Substack by the same name — stories about life, resilience, failure, grit, and the impossible business of becoming a better human without burning your entire life to the ground in the process.
If you’ve ever woken up wondering how to keep going…
If you’ve ever tried to reinvent yourself at the “wrong” age…
If you’ve ever fought your own doubts while chasing something bigger…
If you’ve ever felt like life is one long run where the finish line keeps moving…
This is your book.
Lowry doesn’t hand out “10 Steps to Fix Your Life.”
He hands you something better: his lived-in truth.
The early mornings.
The setbacks.
The running trails.
The mistakes.
The tiny wins that matter more than we admit.
The lessons that arrive disguised as chaos.
And the moments where the world makes sense for just long enough to write them down.
These essays are sharp, funny, vulnerable, and brutally honest — a reminder that personal development isn’t a mountaintop. It’s a daily lap. A daily choice. A daily reset.
It’s a journey. And it starts every single morning at 9AM.
Whether you’re here for the storytelling, the soul-searching, or just a reason to keep swinging one more day, It’s 9AM gives you what you need most:
A spark. A breath.
A nudge forward.
A reminder you’re not alone.
You kept going - that's a strength that not everyone has.