Mountain Grown - A project of 100 Days in Appalachia. Head back to 100 Days' Homepage.
Travis
Nitro, West Virginia
“You can take a lot more than you think you can in boxing. You learn how to deal with problems, you overcome problems that you think you can't handle.”
"I've been boxing for a year now. You can take a lot more than you think you can in boxing. You learn how to deal with problems, you overcome problems that you think you can't handle. You're constantly improving. Your mindset completely changes on how you tackle problems and issues. Really, you figure out a lot about yourself and how you deal with fear and nerves and everything.
"I'm not going to do anything out of the will of God for my life, obviously, so I'm just gonna see and take it as far as I can and get as better as I can. There's a lot of stuff you can learn from boxing and it helps me out in a lot of ways."
Click image to enlarge. Photo: Curren Sheldon/100 Days in Appalachia
Click an image to enlarge and move through the gallery. Photo: Curren Sheldon/100 Days in Appalachia
Click to play the video. Credit: Curren Sheldon/100 Days in Appalachia
Click image to enlarge. Photo: Curren Sheldon/100 Days in Appalachia
"My father, he's a pastor and an odd job specialist. He does anything. I have 11 brothers and sisters and I did have 12, but my little brother, Luke, died last September. He was 6 years old. It hurts, but you get through it. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't have faith.
"We don't make a lot of money, but we've always had what we needed, always had exactly what we're supposed to have, and we've always trusted God to provide for us and pretty much nothing else."
Click image to enlarge. Photo: Curren Sheldon/100 Days in Appalachia
"There's always hate. There's hate everywhere you go, especially on social media because that's when people think they're brave. Social media gives people a false sense of courage and security, so they think they can say whatever they want. But, that's not the case.
"Probably what I've experienced the most hate from is being a Christian. A lot of people don't like that, and I don't hate anybody, I love everybody. A lot of people get the idea that if I'm a Christian, I'm just trying to force my religion on you, which that's not the case. If I do tell you about Jesus, it's 100 percent because I love you and I care about you. Nothing more, nothing less. It's just that I want that assurance that you can go into heaven someday. And that's all love, there's nothing else. I'm not trying to push my religion on you, tell you how to live or anything like that."