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Jesse Drennen, a former football stand-out at Ringgold High School, was one of those young men you hear about who leave high school and drift.
Now on the doorstep of 30, Drennen says he still hasn't completely found his way in the modern American economy, which he thinks is designed for people with college degrees.
Drennen, 29, says candidly that he has a history of substance abuse and has been through a series of on-and-off relationships with women. Just now, he says, he is getting some traction in his life as a primary caretaker of two sons, ages 6 and 7. He also is a fledgling writer with a self-published novel who believes his best days are ahead.
Back in the late 2000s, Drennen says, things looked worse. While in high school, Drennen said he got some partial scholarship offers to play football in college, but it was never enough.
Before the start of his senior year at Ringgold High School, his behavior spun out of control. Drennen explains, " I ended up sleeping at my best friend's. I started using drugs. I quit working out and quit going to school. I lost direction and I didn't know what I was doing or why."
Eventually, he moved to Kingsport, Tenn., to live with his father and took a job in metal fabrication. Drennen said he soon knew his chances for advancement in the job were small, so he eventually moved back to the Chattanooga area, where he lived in a pop-up camper for seven months.
One day, he was sitting in a girlfriend's Ford Probe on the side of the road drinking Bacardi rum when he got into a verbal spat with two guys installing cable lines for EPB.
One of the guys told him, "Calm down, sport!"
Drennen snapped back, "I don't know what you are doing, but I could do it better."
Ironically, the exchange ended in a job offer and set Drennen on a path of working for power and cable companies for much of the next decade.
Two children and a failed relationship later, Drennen said he found himself in 2011 with a worsening substance abuse problem and a need for rehabilitation, which he completed in South Florida.
"(Before rehab) I was bouncing around drinking and staying in motels," he recalls. "I was just trying to make it through the day."
Over time, Drennen said, he started to feel better and eventually began taking care of his boys. But household finances were tight, he says. "I remember one day having 20 bucks to my name and using $10 for a wrestling tournament," he recalls.
Today, Drennen works as a technical writer for an e-learning company. The pay, he says, is steady but modest.
He began to cultivate an interest in literary writing. Drennen has self-published a novel called "From Coal to Gold," about a high school football team in West Virginia. Some of the themes in the book are taken from his small-town experiences, he says.
Meanwhile, he is on the lookout for freelance writing gigs, too, he says - anything to create some financial breathing room for his family.
"As this point, I'm a single dad trying to raise the boys the best I can," he said. "I budget the best I can. To them everything is normal; they don't know how hard I struggle.
"I've tried to go back to school twice," says Drennen. "But I can never finish. Anybody these days who doesn't have a giant education is very limited. There are so many people that don't have a degree from a big college that are brilliant individuals."
Drennen understands enough about narrative to know that his life story is still being written, and it could go any of several ways.
In some ways, his life represents America in 2017.
Imperfect still at risk striving.
Contact staff writer Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6361.