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Attorney Joshua Horton credits ICC and Ole Miss in changing his life.

Joshua Horton and Natalia Kumar will be married at The Inn at Ole Miss on Sunday.

Natalia and Joshua attended the recent Morgan Wallen concert at Ole Miss. It was Natalia's first time in Oxford.

Horton purchased a brick where he had his mantra, "No Matter What," engraved at Ole Miss.

Natalia Kumar and Joshua Horton will be married on Sunday in Oxford. Photos provided

“No matter what,” has been Joshua Horton’s mantra that he says has helped him overcome many hurdles in life, and this Sunday, he will say it to his future wife when they get married at The Inn at Ole Miss.

“It only makes sense to return home, reach my hands out, and say again, to her, ‘No Matter What,’” Horton told the Eagle earlier this week.

Horton is an attorney living in southeast Florida. He’s about to marry the woman of his dreams and credits his good fortune to Ole Miss.

But life wasn’t always this good for the Ole Miss Law School alumnus.

Struggling with substance abuse issues and facing several felony charges while living in Atlanta in the early 2000s, he packed a bag and moved to Mississippi to live with his grandparents.

He enrolled at Itawamba Community College and soon started to see the light of what life could be life.

“People told me I’d never be a lawyer,” he said. “They said I’d be dead or in prison by the time I was 24 years old. I decided I had no other option than to keep going. So, I tattooed ‘No matter what’ on my ribs.”

Earning a 4.0 GPA at ICC, he was given a Lucky Day Scholarship by Ole Miss. After finishing his bachelor’s degree, he was accepted into the law school. In 2017, he graduated and proved the naysayers wrong by accomplishing the impossible – he became a lawyer.

He moved to Florida to help those being victimized by treatment center predators and now represents victims of fraud and those suffering from substance use disorder.

It was there he met his fiancé´, Natalia about a year ago. The two traveled to Oxford last month to attend the Morgan Wallen concert at the Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium.

“She just absolutely fell in love with Oxford,” Horton said. “I love Oxford too and figured such a wonderful place was a wonderful start to my new life. Why couldn’t it be a wonderful place to start our new life?”

The couple decided to share their wedding with the Oxford and University community and the people who helped change Horton’s life forever for the better, who inspired him to keep pushing and believed in him.

Horton said he plans on eventually moving his family back to Oxford.

“Ole Miss believed in me; the Honors College believed in me; people took risks on somebody that was a hard case,” he said. “I’ve just got so much gratitude for it. Because all this gave me my life … it gave me my entire existence. And I want to come back, I want to come home. I just have some stuff I got to do here first.”

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