Rags to Rigs

I Am Is and Was ™ Album One - Track 1

By C.J. Barembruch | I Am Is and Was ™

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIKZ42XF9K8

Namaste. 👋 

Every empire has a first brick. 

This song is mine. 

Rags to Rigs didn’t begin as a song. It began as a decision. Made in a homeless shelter in Calgary, Alberta, by a man who had spent the better part of his life watching everything he built collapse under the weight of addiction, illness, and the kind of pain that doesn’t announce itself — it just slowly takes everything until there is nothing left. 

And then I made a different decision. 

The Story Behind the Song 

I grew up on a farm in small town Alberta. Scottish Highlander cattle. Chickens. A kitchen table where my mother read to her children in a voice that held everything steady. It was an extraordinary childhood in many ways — and it was also where the damage began. The damage that would take decades to name and longer to survive. 

The years that followed that kitchen table were everything. The coming out at 18 that cost me my family unit overnight. The addiction that followed like a shadow I couldn’t outrun. Crystal meth. An HIV diagnosis at 28 — undetectable today, but a weight I carry in every room I walk into. I built something extraordinary in the middle of all of it. I became a leader people trusted. I turned the highest theft store in an entire company into the lowest in one year. And then I burned it all down. 

Until there was a hotel room. And a decision I had already made. 

My aunt sent a text. My mother had fallen. She was in the hospital. And something inside me — something that had not yet given up — snapped back to reality. I needed to see her again. 

When I finally made it home, I sat across from my mother and learned she had brain cancer. Six months to a year. Those were the numbers they gave her. She went through surgery, chemo, laser therapy. She had the option to stop. She chose not to. She chose to live every single day she had. 

If she could do that — so could I. 

I came back to Calgary. Back to the shelter. Back to a phone and a decision. I had been exploring GoMining — a crypto mining platform — for about a year and a half. I took that one platform and made it the financial foundation of a movement. I started posting my results on social media. I began learning AI. I used it to build a website, to shape my voice, to turn everything I had lived through into something I could finally offer to the world. 

All from a phone. In a homeless shelter. With a promise to my mother that I would be clean when she eventually left this world. 

During that visit home my mother told me something I had never known. After 49 years of my life, she told me I have an older brother. Like my younger brother Trever — who I carry every single day — he has red hair and freckles. His name is also Christopher. All she knows is that when I was about two, an envelope arrived in the mail. Inside was a photograph. And five words. 

“This is the result. He is 4.” 

That is probably all I will ever know. 

But I chose that he gets to be my hero. The big brother I never knew. Someone to look up to. Someone to become worthy of. Every chapter of this empire — every blog, every song, every lesson — is the man I am building myself into. For him. For Trever. For my mother. And for every person who has ever stood in a hotel room and almost didn’t walk out. 

This song is where the building began. 

You Are Part of This Story

This didn't happen in isolation. Nothing real ever does. Ubuntu — I am, because we are — isn't just a philosophy I carry. It's the reason I'm still here. And it's the reason I'm building this in public, one song at a time.

If something in this story moved you, there are a few ways to become part of it.

🎵 Listen to the album. Own a piece of it. Every song is a chapter. Every purchase keeps the building going. Explore the Music Room →

⛏️ Start your own Rags to Rigs story. GoMining is where mine began — a crypto mining platform I built on from a shelter using nothing but a phone. If you're curious, use my referral link and get 5% off your first purchase. Join GoMining →

I Am Because We Are. Build something.

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⚠️ Investment Disclosure Crypto mining is a form of investment — and all investments carry risk. This is not financial or investment advice. It is my personal story. I only invest what I am personally comfortable with, and I encourage you to make decisions based on your own research and financial situation. If you use my referral link, I may receive a benefit at no additional cost to you.

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Namaste. 👋

I Am Is and Was ™

I Am,

Because We Are ™

#GoMining │ #RagsToRigs │ #iamisandwas │ #recovery │ #LGBTQ2S │ #50plus