When you're young, you make some really, really stupid mistakes. Ideally, you learn from them and they don't impact you for the rest of your life. But, for some people out there, the mistakes do alter their path and rob them of some big opportunities in life.
Tony Farmer is a great example of that. If you're not familiar with Farmer, he's an 18-year-old from Garfield Heights, Ohio who has been recruited to play basketball at a handful of top-notch colleges, including Ohio State, Michigan State, and Illinois. But, yesterday, he was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty on kidnapping, robbery, assault, and intimidation of the victim charges following an incident involving his ex-girlfriend that took place in April. And, shortly after the verdict was read out, he collapsed in the courtroom, most likely because he knows what that means—that his college basketball career might be over before it even starts.
Now, we're not excusing what he did. He got committed a crime. In fact, he committed a series of crimes. And, it's also important to point out that his sentence will be reviewed in six months and could be changed. But, we hope that this serves as a lesson for all the young kids out there. When you're young, it's natural to make mistakes. You just can't make mistakes as big as the one that this guy made and expect to get away with it. The look on his face when the verdict was read says it all.
