To About Time,
I am serving a 33-month sentence. I have been imprisoned first at Silverwater/MRRC before being transferred to another prison and am to be paroled in December this year.
My experience of being imprisoned has been like my world is crumbling down all around me. One day, I was a successful working professional. The next, I was refused bail following an incident.
Something that has kept me grounded throughout this traumatic, stressful and often lonely experience, to me, has been to remember who I am.
I am not my crime.
That was a bad moment. It happened. But it is but one grain of sand on a whole beach of life experiences.
As I sit in my cell tonight, I know my identity is more than this 4x2 room.
As a Christian, I have faith, hope and love in something much greater than myself and this place.
I encourage everyone who is incarcerated not to identify with your crime. Rather, identify with something higher, wider and greater than that.
I want to implore you to seek your purpose and to aim for that better future.
Thank you.
