Part 1 of 3 – Austin’s Addiction

Austin Eubanks took the time to share his story with me .. Here it is .. Part 1

Back on April 20, 1999, Austin Eubanks was 16 years old. He showed up to school like it was any other Tuesday school day. Austin was a student in the 11^th grade at Columbine High School, in Littleton Colorado.

Austin was a good kid.

HE NEVER TRIED DRUGS.

He loved to spend time with his best friend, Corey Depooter. Austin and Corey liked to golf together. They also liked to go fly fishing together. They were two 16 year olds with their whole lives ahead of them.

Sometime between the hours of 11:30am and 12pm Mountain Standard Time on April 20, 1999… Austin and Corey found themselves together, again.  This time …very close together… Hiding and trying to protect themselves …under a table in their high school library.

Most of you know the events of that fateful day. Two students by the name of Eric and Dylan decided to go on a murder spree throughout their high school. Marching into the school with loaded guns and wearing trench coats. This was a planned out attack as there were planted homemade explosives in the building as well.

The story of what specifically happened to Austin and Corey is as follows: Austin and Corey were hiding underneath one of the library tables. There were several students hiding under several library tables that day. These were young high school students, all confused and afraid for their lives. They could hear gunfire in the distance and then getting closer.

The 2 perpetrators made their way into the library. They began picking and choosing who they will shoot. They eventually made their way next to the table Austin and Corey were under. A gun pointed at Corey and the gun fired. Corey was shot and it quickly became obvious that he was killed. Austin was shot as well. A bullet hit him in the hand and in the knee.

When the perpetrators eventually left the library, they left behind a combination of injured and dead students … Those who were able to run out of the building did so. Austin was able to escape the building.

Austin told me that he left that building and never came back inside. EVER.

I remember watching the events of this day on  television. It was before any type of social media existed, so it was watched on the evening news and breaking live news on CNN and all the main news tv channels. Those images of the students fleeing the Columbine High School will forever be engrained in my brain.

You will learn in the story, as I did in my conversation with Austin,  that the 20 minutes that Austin was in the Columbine High School library were the very moments that DEFINED him for a very long time. Those bullets caused a lot of pain, beyond the physical pain from the gunshots. The physical pain from the bullet wounds ended 4 days later… There was additional pain that he tried to stop. He tried to stop it by taking prescription pain medication (amongst other drugs) and a lot of it…!!!!

This is a story will quickly switch gears to a story of addiction.

Drug addiction.

The rest of this story will be about Austin and what transpired in his life after “Columbine”.

It will answer questions such as…

Did Austin finish high school?

Did he go to college?

Does he forgive the perpetrators?

What was the turning point in his life that  motivated him to have lasting recovery from his addiction ?

And much more ..

Stay tuned…More to come in Part 2.