Journal Entry: Andres Alejandr Freyre-12/15/2023

Journal Entry

So these past few weeks have posed some interesting challenges for me. For some reason that seems to be shrouded in mystery, our facility has been on lockdown status for a few weeks now. We’ve been confined to our housing unit with no outgoing movement. This means that education has been closed as well as recreation. Because I have a full class load right now as part of one of my long-term goals of getting a Bachelor’s degree before I get out, I’ve had to figure out how to do all my homework and reading inside of my cell. This is actually pretty difficult because I essentially live inside of a small bathroom with another grown man. Also, having a workout a routine that involves the treadmill and other machines they have at recreation, I’ve had to make up totally new exercises to do without any equipment inside the unit. This doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal but when you get used to a routine and suddenly you’re forced to change everything, it can easily sap your motivation if you are not careful. And there for sure were a couple of days in the beginning where I was kind of frozen, thinking it would only be a day or two of lockdown. Once the third day came along I decided that I wouldn’t wait for them and instead adapt to the situation. This was easier said than done but I have kept pushing through and feel good about my new routine. I’m sure we’ll be having to come off lockdown soon and I will have to totally change my routine back to the one I have when the institution is running normally. Also, I have been preparing to teach the 7 Habits on the Inside class as I’m one of a handful of inmates throughout the BOP to be certified by the Covey company to do so. Unfortunately, it looks like I won’t be teaching my own class but instead helping staff run the class while they teach it. This is unexpected but I’m still grateful that I get to be involved somehow. The reasons I wanted to do it myself were to brush up on my own group-leading skills while using my certification and just to practice and become better at it, but more importantly, it’s to spread the material about building character and knowing the right principles. This opened my eyes in a lot of ways and so I feel the necessity to spread those teachings in any way I can. So as long as the class is here and being taught to people then the ultimate goal is being accomplished and I’m grateful to be a part of that in any capacity. Maybe in the future, once they’re more comfortable with the class and get to know me better maybe they’ll give me some trust to do it myself.