A decade ago, this man weighed ninety pounds, was homeless in Oklahoma City, and jail wouldn’t even take him because he was too sick to process. Friends, his name is Danny M. Ellerd, and for nearly twenty years, addiction ran his life. Opiates, relapse, burned bridges, abandoned houses, tents. The kind of spiral people quietly assume never reverses. By the time felony warrants caught up with him, even the system hesitated. He was hospitalized instead. That moment didn’t fix anything overnight. What followed was slower, less cinematic, and far harder. Danny entered recovery, completed a residential program, and rebuilt his life one routine at a time through Hope Is Alive Ministries. Thirty months sober, he didn’t disappear into anonymity. He stayed present. He sponsored others. He showed up. In August 2023, Danny was selected for Cohort #4 at the Center for Social Innovation at OSU–OKC, while working part time, managing a recovery home, and starting college full time at Oklahoma State University–Oklahoma City. He didn’t just survive school. Danny pursued a Computer Information Systems degree, earned multiple programming certifications, joined leadership organizations, and maintained a 4.0 GPA. No shortcuts. No lowered bar. Just consistency. Today, Danny says his past feels like a bad dream. Not erased. Just no longer in control. The quiet truth is this: recovery doesn’t look like redemption arcs. It looks like showing up on ordinary days until ordinary days add up to a life. Credit: Center for Social Innovation/ Facebook #fblifestyle #recoveryjourney #secondchances #educationmatters #humanstories

A decade ago, this man weighed ninety pounds, was homeless in Oklahoma City, and jail wouldn’t even take him because he was too sick to process. Friends, his name is Danny M. Ellerd, and for nearly twenty years, addiction ran his life. Opiates, relapse, burned bridges, abandoned houses, tents. The kind of spiral people quietly assume never reverses. By the time felony warrants caught up with him, even the system hesitated. He was hospitalized instead. That moment didn’t fix anything overnight. What followed was slower, less cinematic, and far harder. Danny entered recovery, completed a residential program, and rebuilt his life one routine at a time through Hope Is Alive Ministries. Thirty months sober, he didn’t disappear into anonymity. He stayed present. He sponsored others. He showed up. In August 2023, Danny was selected for Cohort #4 at the Center for Social Innovation at OSU–OKC, while working part time, managing a recovery home, and starting college full time at Oklahoma State University–Oklahoma City. He didn’t just survive school. Danny pursued a Computer Information Systems degree, earned multiple programming certifications, joined leadership organizations, and maintained a 4.0 GPA. No shortcuts. No lowered bar. Just consistency. Today, Danny says his past feels like a bad dream. Not erased. Just no longer in control. The quiet truth is this: recovery doesn’t look like redemption arcs. It looks like showing up on ordinary days until ordinary days add up to a life. Credit: Center for Social Innovation/ Facebook #fblifestyle #recoveryjourney #secondchances #educationmatters #humanstories