"The Blind Side" didn't tell all of Michael Oher's story. Now, he tells us the rest.

• My first memory is three years old, and I can remember me and my brothers. We were walking down the street looking for shelter, looking for somewhere to go, and I can remember my brother laying me down on the ground to change my diaper. And finally, we ended up in a shed behind a house, and we spent the night there a couple nights, and that's the first memory I had. I still remember it vividly.

I grew up in Hurt Village. As I think back now, a lot of people were hurting every single day. You know, it's definitely ironic. You know, crack cocaine, the drug epidemic, it destroyed generations, my family. I don't have a close bond with anyone in my family because of drugs, because of crack cocaine. I was homeless from three years old, in and out of foster care from 3 to 10. I was on the streets alone.

When you're walking around hungry, you're angry all the time, and you're just upset at the world basically because you can't do anything about it. You're thinking, you're sitting around, "How can I go cure this pain that I have?" What I would do, I would go to the grocery stores or gas stations, and I would go steal, and that's just the way I had to eat. I was alone a lot, and how I would pass my time, I would watch a lot of movies. I loved movies, loved TV.

I can remember at seven, everyone's around the TV. Everyone's cheering Michael Jordan. In my mind, thinking back on it, I'm like, "Wow, this is incredible. He's like a God. He's being worshiped. Everyone's cheering. Everyone's around the TV just to see this guy right here." So that was the first thought of something that inspired me. I kind of saw the future. Basically, I saw where if I just take my mind and give my mind 100% into where I wanted to go, I could go out and do something special.

From that point right there at seven years old, it helped propel me, and it was very pivotal. I understood the difference between kids who would put in the work to be Michael Jordan and the kids who weren't willing to put in the hard work to be successful. When I look myself in the mirror, I wasn't gonna blame anyone but myself because I understood the people around me was on drugs, and they couldn't help me, and everyone was in a tough situation. I understood that it was gonna be up to me to go out there and chase whatever dream that I wanted to chase.

Sometimes I think back, man, "You're really, you are a warrior to go through the things that you went through," because even though I was living in a shack with no locks on the doors, no windows, to me I didn't see it that way. I got up, I made the bed that I had. I cleaned the room up when it was nothing, but that was me healing what was around me. I don't see how I did it. I'm like, "Jesus, you're an extraordinary kid," when I think back on me sometimes.

One of the things that "The Blind Side" the movie didn't tell about me is the hard work and the things that I did up until that point. It got thrown away a little bit, and that's something, that's a message that I would like for the young people to know. You put your head down. You go out. You meet people halfway. You do what's right, you stay consistent, find discipline, and you can go out and be successful.

Actions is everything to me. Every single day, my mindset was to do the right thing, and that was waking up, going to school on my own, not being disrespectful, not joining gangs, not doing the things that's around me because I didn't want that cycle to continue. I can remember the exact day when I just couldn't do it anymore. I was just tired of not having a routine, tired of going from house to house and couch surfing and having to run from the authority.

So I just understood that you have to separate yourself from the people who aren't willing to sacrifice and go out and do the things that you're willing to do, and you can't allow those things to hold you back. That was the most important thing that I'd ever done was to be comfortable with that separation and getting rid of that attachment to my family members because if not, I think I'd still be in the same situation.

The thing I've healed the most today is I don't think you are ever completely healed. I think family is the most important cause that's what I was chasing forever.