Destin’s intricate personality and interests set him apart from most others. On one hand, he’s very passionate about cooking and spent several years bartending as a cocktail enthusiast. On the other, he’s a trained fire-breather and he spent two years in Durango, CO dirt biking in the summer and snowboarding in the winter – and the fun certainly doesn’t stop there.

He and his brother frequently spend their weekends working on their 1979 International Scout. His fifteen-year-old rescue dog, Scout, enjoys watching the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks with him when they’re together. Bird hunting and bass fishing are also some of Destin’s favorite pastimes.

We’re like family here at All Nation, so we asked him to tell us about one of his favorite memories. He couldn’t decide which memory was his favorite, so he gave us summaries of a few different options. The story we chose probably isn’t his favorite memory, but he said it’s one he’ll never forget, and we definitely won’t either.

He took a deep breath and began, “It was New Year’s Day, 2004. My friend and I, both about twelve years old, got together to head down to the creek to play around. After a mile bike ride through the woods, we weren’t far off, but we noticed something unusual. A thick smoke was rolling through the forest toward us. Moving a little closer, we saw the ten-foot flames reaching through the smoke. We jumped into action and started kicking in the leaves and dirt to stop the fire. It was a lot of work and hard to breathe in all the smoke, but we were determined. After a few hours, we finally halted the fire’s advancement. Covered in soot and ashes, we probably laid on the ground for an hour since we were so exhausted. That’s the story of how we became heroes and saved our forest and neighborhood from a blazing fire.”

We gave him a round of applause and everyone was very impressed. It wasn’t until after he received praise from everyone that he “remembered” a little detail he’d left out. “Well, I guess I should also let you know that we actually went to the creek earlier that day to play with fireworks. Some dead grass caught on fire and quickly spread out of control. We ran away because we were afraid, but we came back later because we felt bad about it. You’re going to leave that part out though, right?” 

Not a chance.