I had never been in a fight before.
I had never hit anyone with the intent of hurting them before.
I had never instinctually attacked anyone before.
Let alone, done any of this to a friend.

That all changed one night, a little over a week ago.

I was at home, probably playing video games, when one of my oldest friends called me.


IT WAS SHELBY! Shelby and I have grown up together out here, as most of our close friends have. A few of us have even lived out in Brentwood our whole lives, back when there were only like 3 stoplights in town!

My friend Shelby was in town from San Diego, and thus, a party was had!
We're an odd group.
Hip-hop dancers,
hard-core red necks,
stoners,
and me, they call me Thespian.


We like to play Beer Pong. We play Beer Pong A LOT!




Now that I've flooded this proof with useless pictures, I'll continue.

My buddy Chris, one of my best friends, had a bit too much to drink. One thing we do when we hang out and drink, is jokingly wrestle, or slap each other, nothing too bad. Nothing that's going to hurt anyone, or leave a mark. It's all in good fun, "boys will be boys."
As I said earlier, Chris got a little drunk.
Someone said "Hey, Chris, you haven't hit Justin tonight!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I was blindsided by a fist.

It hurt, a lot. Everyone heard it apparently, that sound of a punch makes, and everyone turned around to see what happened. I bent over, cause it REALLY hurt, made me dizzy. It started bruising immediately. And then, out of no where, I turned around and punched Chris.

This was the first time I had ever hit anyone.
I knocked my friend, one of my best friends, out.

A few seconds later, he stood up, and just kinda left. I was still there, and well, I was in shock.


Yea, that's two shocking looks in one proof.

I'd say I was also wounded spiritually that night. Violence is not my thing, never has been. One could say I am morally objected to instinctual violence, uncontrolled rage. I'd rather have control over emotion than let myself act without thought. I meditated, a lot. I was in a bad mood for about two days, with guilt and shame and everything. took a lot of meditating to come to terms with what I had done.

Chris and I are cool, he forgave me early the next morning, he called me while I was at work and we both had our sorrys and what not. We both had that whole "did that just happen?!" thing going on.

Least to say, Chris has assured me that no one will be punching me again  for quite some time.

Now on to the healing.

This is about an hour and a half after the punch. The bruising is starting to come in, and my face is very swollen.


The next day. You can see that even my eye-lid was bruised. Sneezing hurt, cause you shut your eyes rapidly. And I have hay-fever. That was a fun day.


Day 3. Slowly healing, turning from purple to brown.


Only picture I have of Days 5-6, I thought I took more, I was obviously mistaken.



One week later. Almost completely healed. I had that beauty mark spot for about 2 more days till it was gone.