Not Built for the Classroom
School was never really for me—or for Austin, either. From the jump, it felt like we were being forced into a system that didn’t understand us. Sit down. Be quiet. Do the work. Follow the rules. But no one ever asked what we were carrying on the inside. No one ever saw past the surface.
Some days, it felt like we were just trying to survive the hours. School wasn't about learning—it was about making it to the end of the day without snapping, without getting suspended, without someone labeling us as "problems."
We weren’t dumb. We just didn’t fit into the mold they were trying to shove us into.
Different Masks, Same Pain
Austin spent most of his time with his girl back then. From the outside, it looked like he had someone. But behind closed doors, it was toxic. Constant arguments, back and forth, stress he didn’t need. I saw how it weighed on him. He didn’t open up about it much, but I knew. That’s what loyalty is—when you see someone struggling and stand by them even when they won’t say a word.
Me? I was the funny one. The one always laughing, clowning around, being the life of the room. I had a lot of friends—people liked me. But none of them truly knew me. I wore a mask every single day, and I wore it well. Deep down, I was drowning in depression. Sad as hell. Lost. But I didn’t let it show. That’s the scariest thing about mental pain—it hides behind smiles and silence.
No one could’ve guessed what was really going on. Not even me, sometimes.
Passing by the System
My grades? They were passable. Just enough to stay under the radar. Austin was smarter than me when it came to the schoolwork, but neither of us really saw a future in any of it. We weren’t thinking about college or careers. We were thinking about surviving. About making it to the next day without breaking.
The Girl Who Changed Everything
Then, halfway through the school year, I met her.
She came into my life like a spark—kind, warm, and understanding. For a while, she was my escape. My peace. The only one who made me feel like I mattered. She became the best thing that ever happened to me… and eventually, one of the hardest.
She didn’t break me—my pain was already there. But being with her opened up parts of me I didn’t know how to control. When she started slipping away, it felt like I was losing the one person who made me feel seen. The heartbreak didn’t come all at once. It came in pieces, breaking me from the inside out.
I was loyal to her, even when I was breaking. But sometimes, loyalty to someone else can leave you betraying yourself.
Real Loyalty Never Left
Through all of it—me falling apart, Austin dealing with his own stuff—we stayed loyal to each other. No matter how messy life got, we were always there. That loyalty didn’t come from a name. It came from years of pain, of bonding, of building something real when the world gave us fake.
That’s why we called the brand Loyalty.
Because it’s not just a word—it’s how we survived.
In school, in silence, in sadness—we never left each other behind.
And in a world full of people who came and went, we held on.
Lessons the Classroom Couldn’t Teach
Looking back, school didn’t teach us how to survive. It didn’t show us how to handle heartbreak, mental health, toxic love, or deep loneliness. It didn’t teach us how to express what we felt when all we wanted was to scream.
But it did teach us something real—how rare loyalty is.
And how powerful it can be when you give it to someone who actually deserves it.