I am Christopher A. Hunter. I have asked myself many times, “who am I?” It was strange to ask that of myself, considering that I should know, who I am! But honestly that is a question that has been hard to answer. I have found it hard to describe myself, because I am not a narcists. I cannot look in the mirror and just simply tell anyone about myself. I more about allowing my behavior tell you what it is about me. Being that I have a good work ethic, playing sports or making good grades in class, this is who I am. But today to describe who I am. I can tell you that I am Christopher A. Hunter. I am 50 years old. I have been incarcerated since I was 18 years old. I want to work with disadvantaged/troubled youths and youths with disabilities and make a big change. I have a soft heart for children, being that I came in prison young and lost my childhood to prison. I do not want to see children come in here and lose theirs. I have a purpose in life, and I believe that it is to provide guidance to the children. I want to work with children and inspire them so much that I am even donating $60 a month from my prison pay to three organizations (St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, The Covenant House, and Easter Seals). I aspire to make a change with troubled/disadvantaged youths and to give them a safe space to be themselves. I know that children learn a lot from what they see. Yet I do not have any empirical evidence of this, but I have seen many instances of this point. I have lost over thirty one years to this system. I do not allow myself to become a product of this environment. I cannot lose my sanity. I cannot go back to being miserable and bitter. I cannot allow myself to go to a dark space, as I have done in the past because I was hurt and felt that the whole world was against me. That is easy to do, especially being young and impressionable growing up in a society of haves and have nots, us against them and culture wars. I have had to channel my hurt to a positive energy, because I was losing myself further into the system. I have found that I do not like fictional books like I used to. I was once a follower of James Patterson, Michael Crichton and John Grisham novels. Then I went to classical books like Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. This book became one of my instance classics along with James Clavell’s Shogun. Books of this ilk gave me a different look about reading books, because it was more than me imaging and escaping my present. These books have substance versus just reading a fictional novels, in which was like me watching a movie just to occupy my mind. I started seeing life very differently and I could tell that there was an approach to life happening within me. I am not saying that reading these books just make a person act a certain way. But I know that I start to think more, out of the box. Now I am reading books like War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, making quotes by Frederic Dostoyevsky, from the House of the Dead and I can tell you that Dante in Alexandre Dumas became a well rounded man as Castiglione described while in prison. I am dedicated and motivated to succeed, no matter the circumstances. My head may be bloodied yet it is unbowed! That is from William Hensley’s poem, “Invictus.”
