Nothing but Positivity

When I first entered the premises of San Quentin, i was primarily nervous. Although it didnt show, my fears on the inside were killing me. Once we started walking through the yard, i started thinking about all of the movies about prisons and all of the tv shows. All of these stereotypes rushed into my head and made me instantly nervous. But as we continued to walk and proceeded to shake hands with some of the prisoners i became more comfortable. Once we entered the room where we did our session, i felt that i was safe. But this feeling of safe was whats wrong with people. The fact that people were scared of these inmates is because of the stereotypes that have been portrayed upon them. I feel that one of the main reasons i signed up for this, is not only to learn a bit about Shakespeare, but to kind of get a sense of what its like on the “inside”. the first person that introduced himself to me was Chris, Chris was a grandfather, and was one of the most insightful people i have ever met. He talked to me about what he did in his life and how what he did was wrong, and that he should turn his life around and focus on helping the world because that is where the real problem is. I was conversing with another one of the inmates, i cannot recall his name, but he told me his story. He said that he killed someone, after that i paused, and realized that these men in this prison have done very bad things. then this man said to me that he doesn’t deserve anything because if he took someone else’s life, then whats the reason he should have his own. these men have portrayed nothing but positivity, that there is hope in the world. that if we all work together we can solve this epidemic. They showed me that we need to put the past behind us and focus on the future and what we can do to better the world.

I believe that the backgrounds of these people have greatly impacted who they are. the area that they lived in was Kill or Be Killed. there are situations that occur in these people’s daily lives that most people cant even fathom having it in their lives. we as a community need to be more aware of the “other”. the “other” stands for the other people in the world, the fact that other people have witnessed things that you haven’t. these other people have things in their life that hold them down and make them the people they are today. we need to be accepting to all people because we don’t know where they are from and what their past life was like. If more people understood this concept of the “other” there would be less fear in the world, and also less death. If we all accept everyone around us without letting stereotypes take control of our minds like a puppeteer, then we can break free from these problems that surround us and we can accept all and love all.