My Grandpa was dying in the hospital with leukemia. He would get scared a lot, who wouldn’t though. I had just got laid off from my last job, so I would stay with him at night. 9pm – 9am. It was really taxing on me, watching my grandpa slowly die. One day before my shift of watching him, I decided to go to market night in Redlands. I hadn’t done anything social in a month; it was time to get out.

I went down there alone, just for something to do. I was getting Chinese food when I noticed a tall guy behind me with big plugs and a tattooed neck. We gave each other the "what’s up" nod. When I started to walk away with my food he stopped me. "Hey do you listen to hardcore?" pointing to my death by stereo shirt. "Yeah", I told him. "You just ordered your food vegetarian right? "Yeah I'm vegetarian". "What about straight edge? my reply was "I have been sober from day one, and straight edge since i was 16".

Guy: Holy crap! When did you move here? what’s your name? Where do you live? Are you here with anyone else?

Me: I've always been here, I live in Highland, My name is Josh, and I came down here alone

Guy: Hey Josh, I’m Eric. Check this out; let me get my food, and then your going to come hang out with friends and my cool, me?

So I waited for him. We walked over to a big set of steps in front of a bank building. There was a bunch of kids all hanging out.

Eric got all of their attention and made an announcement. "Everyone, check it out. This is Josh, he is from Highland. He’s hanging out with us now. Make friends with him"

Eventually, "Josh from Highland" became "Josh Highland", and it stuck. I’m not opposed to it at all. I’m also stoked that I made some new fiend out of the deal.