The Fourth Year, 2009 - 2010
Student / Inmate Reflections
Nowadays some people have problems at home, then they come to school with
their problems, then they just don't care about school,
then they just go to school to hustle and smoke weed.
These things affect people and keep them from going to
school. They give up on themselves.
It's like this, when people have their houses shot at, when people's
family members die, you just don't know what you want to
do with your life.
Some people will rob you to get what they need. Some people just need
someone to take care of them and talk to them like they
really care about them and what goes on in their lives.
If we really had people who cared about our lives, maybe
we would go back to school. All we need is someone to
believe in us, to help us, and to help us want to help
ourselves.
Kevin
Why do I write? I want to express my feelings. It is easier to
write than to talk about feelings. I want to show that I am more
intelligent than I show, and I want to let people know a little
about me and my background. I write to talk about my everyday
struggles. I write to let my words do the aggressive work
instead of my hands. I write because my words won't get me into
as much trouble as my actions did. I let my words do the
fighting and pen do the writing. There's more than meets the
eyes in me, you just have to find it. Writing is a good way to
find it. This is why I write.
Quintin
This program is good because. It helps people to get to know us
better, not just look at us as just inmates or bad kids. People
are so quick to judge you by their first impression, but this
program lets people in on things that people don't know about us
and that most of us don't share. And it might change the way
people look at us. People judge a book by the cover, but you
don't know what that book is about until you read it.
I like to write because it helps me to express my feelings. It
is easier to write to get out stuff than to talk about it.
Writing also takes my mind off the stressful things. It makes my
time and days go by fast, and it stops me from thinking about
what the judge is going to do or say when I get court again. I
think about what's going on in the world on the outside.
Sometimes I try to sleep all day, but I can't. Doing the same
thing everyday makes me want to be a locked in. I wish I could
have a big plate of home cooked food, lie in a big bed, and
chill with my friends again. Writing helps me to ask myself was
it worth it.
Lavon
Writing to me is not just writing.
Writing is more than words on a paper. It's life.
Writing is the way you tell it in black and white.
It's from your mind above and beyond.
You love and hate.
Writing is your faith in you.
People say are you feeling it,
but I say it's your mind
thinking from the back to the front and to the front to the
back.
Now this is what writing in this project means to me.
Why did I never write?
I never wrote before.
I really can tell you that I was scared and,
I didn't know what to write about.
I always thought if I wrote it was never going to sound right,
so I never wrote.
But now I love writing.
After hearing what everyone wrote last week I went back to my
cell and started to think. We are all the same in some way. We
all are hurting, and we all hurt someone that we love. And that
as long we write we all seem happier.
Anonymous
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