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Profile Revised
Profile Revised
Ainsley Hurst
English 2010
16 March 2022
The black sheep. The disappointment. The Addict. The Burnden. The Problem. Oh, and
the middle child. The one who is forgotten, looked over and hardwired to be headstrong and
independent. Unfortunately, his free spirited, unconstrained ways led him down the road of
destruction. Nick Adams is the third son, born to Richard and Peggy, who would have three more
children following him. His elder brothers Bronson and Tanner would tease him and shut him
out, and he never could form a lasting relationship with the fourth son, Alex. From an early age
and through the rest of his life, he would move around frequently, never having anywhere steady.
Without a solid friend group or older siblings to lean on, he grew closest with his younger sister.
The only girl of the family, Stephanie, who also happens to share the title of middle child. She
was his built in side kick, his rock. From the beginning they were troublemakers, continuously
feeding off of each other's bad influences. Nick has gone through some of the worst experiences
When Nick was only ten years old, his youngest brother Cole died at three years old from
a rare form of Leukemia. This took a toll on Nick and he started showing signs of anger issues
and depression, he would often bang his head against the wall and cause harm to himself. Nick
also had an acute chemical imbalance that he has had to be medicated for in order to control
this, early on he got mixed in with the bad group of kids and still feels the consequences of that
decision to this day. In high school, Nick and his group of boys would sleep around, vandalize
property, and drink almost every night. A past memory Nick had was lighting metal bottle caps
on fire for fun, placing them on the ground, and then jumping on them. This dumb contest led to
burns, and eventually scars, that will later effect the entire pathway of his life; not to mention that
While in high school, Nick noticed he had a problem and found his safe space in football,
it was his escape, and he wasn't too bad at it either. During his senior year he would move to Salt
Lake, and attend Hunter High, where he was promised a starter position on their football team
along with a scholarship to SUU. Sadly, this promise was not kept, and he rode the bench
majority of the season next to the rest of the chumps. He could only find his worth in his football
abilities, and without that, he felt as though he was lost. Nick felt everything in his life was
wrong and grew angry and shut out the few friends he had. As a result of losing his friends he
turned to his sister Stephanie; they would cut class and often drink heavily together. He barely
graduated high school and felt there was no point in attending college.
As Nick was getting older his codependency issues got worse due to the fact he was
always with his sister. He graduated high school and continued to sleep around and never truly
had a stable relationship romantically. He realized how lonely he felt and tried really hard to
form a relationship straight out of high school; he was married at the young age of only 20 years
old. Him and his wife had a very toxic relationship and she pulled him deeper into drinking, he
was at the point of being classified as a full fledged alcoholic. She caused him to drink six beers
every night for dinner before smoking his way to sleep. His wife got upset at how bad Nick was
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becoming and tried to hold him accountable for his actions. This made him mad and he divorced
her to feel free again. The marriage lasted less than a year but his single life was even shorter.
Nick moved right onto the next girl and married Brittnay. She had three children from a
previous marriage, but not too long after the wedding Britnay gave birth to Nick’s one and only
child. His family and friends assume that's why he married her. Brittany was addicted to
painkillers, she would repeatedly break her wrist purposely so she could feed her addiction and
be prescribed more pills. She and her marriage with Nick was very unstable and unhealthy. Nick
realized he had a problem with authority and doing things for himself so the relationship became
very rocky. Not only was his home life unstable, but so was his work life. He has relentlessly
bounced around jobs and couldn’t handle his money very well; this led to them running out of
money quickly. They couldn't afford a divocre, let alone their four kids. So they were forced to
sell their house and ultimately ended up separating until they could afford a divorce.
Soon after, the unimaginable happened; Richard, his father, died unexpectedly of a stroke
when Nick was only 21 years old. You cannot imagine the effect this had on him and his siblings.
Soon after his fathers death, Nick’s oldest brother Bronson had a brain tumor removed, around
the same time and he got hooked on his prescription drugs which introduced Nick to his new
found obsession. He started to cope by experimenting with drugs, and continued to sleep around.
However, he found there was nothing to fill that void of his dead father. This unfortunately led
him to trying every drug out there to find that high he was looking for. After receiving a DUI his
eyes were finally opened and he decided to make some very needed changes.
He went cold turkey for a while and moved back to his hometown of Parowan to clear his
head. He had high hopes of relieving his young and wild high school days with his old buddies.
He failed to consider the fact that all of his friends would have families of their own, and had
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grown out of their teenage shenanigans. He believed that this move would make him happy, but
it drove him nearly mad. His daughter refused to keep contact with him like she had promised, so
this place of his own only lasted a few months before deciding to move back because of his
Nick knew he needed to do something with his life so he applied for the US navy upon
his return to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams. He later got accepted but during inspections they
saw the burn marks on the bottom of his feet from all those years before, playing the dumb
bottlecap game, and revoked his spot. They believed this showed he had tendencies of self harm
This was Nick’s final straw and he went on a major downward spiral and moved into a
whore/drug house. He then got evicted, and let go from his job at Walmart after the police
inspected the house. The little money he did have went to drugs and alcohol to feed his
addiction. From there he moved in with Stephanie who has recently been separated from her
husband, not too long after they fixed their problems and got back together and kicked Nick out.
He started rotating couches throughout the week and would stay with a few friends for a few
His mother, Peggy and sister Stephanie decided to help him out and rented a hotel room
for him to stay in, but neither of them were in the financial position to keep that up for long.
Nick had nowhere else to turn except for his car. An old beat up Subaru that is missing the
drivers seat window and stunk of weed. Not only that, but it's the middle of winter. Nowhere to
go, no money to cushion his pants pocket, no home to safely return back to, just the feeling of his
body trembling in the freezing cold. He slept in the frigid backseat for two weeks until his
brother Tanner offered him his guest bedroom, after hearing from Peggy about his situation.
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Just three short months ago he felt that he shouldn't still be alive after everything he has
done and experienced. Nick has expressed that he regrets a wide majority of his decisions. He
feels like Peggy is embarrassed of him. He is disappointed that he has not seen any of extended
family since his family reunion 15 years ago, and that he wasn't invited to the family reunion that
took place last summer. He wishes that he did better in high school , and went to college so that
he could have had a career. He wishes that he had enough financial stability to provide for his
daughter, maybe even travel with her. He wishes that he didn't have the uncontrollable urge to go
outside and smoke a cigarette every hour. He wishes that his life was different, and that he didn't
have to rely on his older brother for a roof over his head.
Through all of these hardships, we can find small wins. As of right now, Nick’s main goal
is to get a job. The one major obstacle is that most places drug tests for marijuana, and much like
high school, he would not pass this test. So he is working on staying clean for 30 days. He is
working towards having his own place so he can be granted visitation rights to see his now 14
year old daughter. It is admirable that he has worked hard to have jobs to support his kids. He has
always been a hard worker and up for big tasks. When he had a job, he would often work
graveyard shifts as a supervisor, not a task many can complete. He is independent and avoids
asking for help, even when he has nowhere to go. Nick is strong and has a good heart, and I
believe that in no time, he can be back on his feet after a life of instability.