2 college degrees, 11 years, and 1 choice: change over rage.
I am doing as well as can be expected considering my current environment. I have been incarcerated for 11 years, with eight to twelve months left to serve depending on my reentry status.
Up until about a year ago, inmates in the Indiana Department of Corrections did not have access to tablets. Once the tablets were made available, different apps would periodically be added. About six months ago Edovo was added, and I recently came across Humans of San Quentin. Your newsletter is one of my favorites. I have read every back issue and related material. One of my favorites is how you give inmates the opportunity to express themselves and be kind.
Feeling left out, not worthy and unloved is common in this environment. Your organization gives us that “life line” to something better. Thank you!
Since my incarceration eleven years ago, I have graduated from Ball State University with an Associate’s Degree in the Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies (with a minor in Sociology and Psychology of Human Development). I have done everything I can to turn this experience into something positive. I also love to write. I write in my “Life Journal” every day, and I write poetry and short stories.
I just wanted to express my gratitude to you and your staff for giving people like me the opportunity to be heard. What you ladies and gentlemen are doing is a wonderful thing.
Change
I have steel bed, steel door, steel toilet and sink with nothing but time to sit and think…
I have so many thoughts running through my mind, but it is my choice what it is I do with this time…
So I choose not to feel rage while confined to this cage, instead I choose change, so I kneel down and pray…
I pray for forgiveness and the strength to change, because only I am to blame for this deep seeded pain and position I am in, and only then change can my new life begin…
So I came before you, Dear Lord, with my heart open and my arms stretched wide, please embrace me and be my life’s guide…
I will embrace you back and hold you close, I will spread your words to those who need you the most…
Because I am a man of change who has been reborn with you in my life, Lord, I can weather any storm.
