This week has been surreal. We now have a convicted felon elected as President of the United States. So many others, like myself, will or have been denied employment with a felony record, yet he has the highest position in our country. I sincerely hope they remove the background check stipulation for this in the future so others can be gainfully employed.
I think of this particularly for those like me, who also need to pay back restitution. I want nothing more than to do what I need to pay this debt, and show that my mistakes don’t define who I am as a person. I still feel like this is all a very bad dream, and that I am going to wake up and it didn’t happen.
It’s challenging to have a dichotomy of serving others through community health, doing everything I can to serve others in need in my community and also carrying a label of felon. Daily I think of my transition back into the “real world” after my sentence is served. I am humbled in knowing my life will never be the same.
It has been over 7 years since I left the clinic. Since that time, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I cannot make the same mistakes, and work in the community to improve access to care for others through community service. I have been humbled by the patients I have served, and led teams of people who are the best of humanity. My hope and goal after serving my sentence is to continue this work, and I will continue to meet with community health leaders to set up a transition after prison this month before I surrender on December 4th. Maybe by the time I am released, they eliminate the need for a background check for white collar crimes or a way we can show that in serving time in prison is punishment enough to not be a pariah in society upon reentry.
