Vince’s Daily Journal – Day 8
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I’ll break from my usual mold today, and respond directly to a challenge from Mr. Santos’ newsletter. At the beginning of the newsletter he states that his journaling on the inside influenced his liberty and income on the outside, and he suggests that – as a critical thinking challenge – we should guess how before reading on. I haven’t read any of his books or taken any of his classes, and I’ve only been getting his newsletter for a handful of months, so I don’t know a ton about his life, pre or post incarceration. However, from what I do know, I think I can make some decent hypotheses. One of the hardest things to overcome when you have a felony on your tagline is other people’s assumptions of who you are, how you think, what your values are. The world will readily slap a whole list of attributes onto anyone with a felony, whether true or not – usually not. By journaling publicly, you give people an opportunity to see who you really are before they even meet you and have the chance to make those assumptions. In making yourself publicly vulnerable, you allow others to see your humanity, to see what we have in common rather than the one thing that’s notably different – criminal history. You also are able to show people that the criminal behavior of your past is the anomaly, and the well-spoken professional the real you.
So, my guess is that your journaling in prison worked as a form of networking, letting people see who you are and the growth and changes you were making over time. That likely led people to offer you writing opportunities while in prison, whether for free or for an income. Writing articles would introduce you to a new audience. By the time you got released, you would have an audience who knows you and wants to hear more from you, giving you work as an author. If your PO was willing to read your writing, it would very likely lead to a higher level of freedom because you’ve shown your commitment to self-improvement, and could even help your PO decide to successfully complete your term of supervision early.
Another benefit to journaling that I haven’t seen mentioned, and is a big part of my reason for doing so, is that it helps me to process my thoughts, to flesh out ideas that I otherwise may not have explored further. But the biggest benefit, and my primary reason for journaling, is that it keeps me in contact with all of my loved ones, keeping my support network strong.
