First off i would like to say thank you to prison professors talent for allowing me to participate each day with emails and sharing of wisdom. recently i received a letter from one of my high school teachers. i was shocked that someone i knew from my old life would reach out and make contact with me especially with the crime that i committed and the impact it had on the small community i came from. for her to sit down a compose a letter to show her support for me from what i have been writing in response to these daily questions is proof that i am reaching the world in some positive way. i was so emotionally impacted from reading her words to me that my eyes got wet after they haven’t been wet in a long time probably since my mother passed away. so i want to say thank you Ms.. Regnier. thank you from the bottom of my heart for showing me compassion and responding to what i have been trying to do by writing to this program. to let those out there in the free world know that i am a different person and want to make a difference in that world when i get out and hope that people like you will give me a chance to continue my life in forgiveness. to let me know there will be those willing to help me as i will be so lost after i complete 25 years of incarceration. thank you for writing to me.
there was a time during my sentence when i just wanted to sleep every day until it was time to go home. i thought that nothing good could come from leaving my cell. then one day one of my homies invited me to the library for some books. i found out that they let you rent educational videos that you can watch in the library if you bring a pair of headphones. i made up my mind to watch every video they had. from then on i have pursued the hunt for knowledge of any kind. i learned that as long as i keep myself in ignorance that is where i will stay. but if i choose the path to higher learning it a path that i have to walk on my own, that no one will hold my hand through the process. i will have to be one to dedicate the time and effort to changing myself. that i am the architect of my own life in or out of prison. that whether i am locked up or free there will be those who will try to hold me back through mundane distractions and if i see opportunities that benefit me without the risk of getting into trouble i will have to be the one to jump on top of them before they pass by. by making the decision to go for it when others tell me not to i will create more opportunities for myself being in places i have never been before. meeting people i never met before had i not taken the initiative and gone places i have never been before such as the library.
but weighing the risks is always a need. sometimes i need to devote money, money i don’t have the luxury of spending frivolously, on educational material. i need to examine my need for these material whether i actually need them or if i can borrow some on loan. and i need to examine whether i am going to take what i am doing and roll with it for good or if this is a temporary trend that will lose steam after awhile. some activities take so much dedication and time that they would actually hold me back from going forward in life. even though the old saying is “We have nothing but time” that is simply not true. time never ends but phases in life change all the time and what is good one day will not be good the next. for this reason i have learned to be flexible with all that i do and have to judge the time to use certain bits of knowledge that will carry on and benifit me for a later day.
READ NEWSLETTER ARTICLE HERE: https://prisonprofessorstalent.com/journal-entries/newsletter-24/
