Throughout his life challenges and inner-city struggles, there were pivotal moments in his life where rewriting the lyrics to songs like The Greatest Love of All and Thats What Friends Are For became the fabric of what has driven Priest to become the poetic/ intellectual thinker that he is today. In his late teens, Priest underwent spiritual initiations through the path of studying Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and the I AM teachings of the Ascended Masters. In the midst of it all, poetry became a threshold for success. In 1995, Priest entered a reputable poetry contest and won first place prize at one thousand dollars. This also gave him great exposure and recognition from top poets throughout the Indianapolis area and beyond, which lead Priest to being one of the well-known heavy hitters in the poet world.