I know who I am as a person. Everyday I strive to be a better person in total. I’m loving, caring, I listen to people. I don’t let the past keep me down. I have drive. I have ambition. I have a love for mankind. And I have no regrets.

Because of my record, I was denied the clearance necessary to teach yoga at a women’s recovery home. I’m an attorney. How is it I am trusted to shepherd clients through some of the most complicated, consequential, and terrifying matters in their lives, but not teach a...

My true, heart-felt life-long passion and love is for people. I’ve always loved people. I’m Irish, Cherokee, and Black; I have Hispanic family members. I get along with everyone and I’m a talker. I’m from a town where racism is in your face. Here, it’s under the...

I dropped out of high school, picked up a DUI, possession of marijuana, and possession of a firearm in commission of an offense. Oh my god, it’s affected my life. Housing? Automatic disqualification. Jobs? I’m qualified—but unless I can find employment that doesn’t...

I did not wake up one morning and decide I want to be a drug addict and an alcoholic, and I didn’t go to sleep on night hoping I’d wake up with bi-polar. But life can be unkind. T was a bad boy, but with his blue eyes and blonde hair, he was the most beautiful human...

I am more than the worst thing I have ever done; you are more than the worst thing you’ve ever done, too. I was a good student, I was an honor student. One drunken night everything changed. It took some time to stop feeling worthless, valueless, voiceless,...

Every choice you make, there are consequences – good and bad. You gotta live with that. And sometimes you don’t realize you’re making choices until it’s too late. I grew up in a dysfunctional family – which included abuse. At home, away from home: neighbors, alcohol,...

I was young nurse, overwhelmed with life. I’d have periods where I could keep it together, and periods where I’d fall apart. At one point, I used other people’s credit cards to support a drug habit. After my conviction, I went to prison and I lost my kids to the...

It’s strange what life hands you. My husband and I both come from amazing, solid families—and we worked hard to create the same for our children and for the hundreds of foster care kids we cared for over the years; I truly believed we were living the dream. But all of...

I carry them with me. The things I’ve done and got away with, the things I didn’t do and was accused of. I was in a gang, a brotherhood. I was rebellious and reckless and for one night, I was kind of a ringleader. Actually, I was the ringleader. We took some things...

Love and poetry saved me. I have heart. If you hire me, I have something to prove. I have a lot to prove to you, to my family, to my friends, to the world. You’re not going to miss a staple, a paper clip, a pen–because I have something to prove.

UNITED STATES VS ME. That’s what the sign outside of the courtroom said: the whole United States against me. I’d never been arrested before, I had no I idea what was going on. I had recently starting selling drugs to support my own habit. I was charged, I was...

I was the gay kid everyone beat up on until I was the gay kid that could get you high. Suddenly, I was invited to all the parties; I got hugs in the hallway, the most popular kids started blowing up my phone. They loved me—or they loved what I supplied. Back then, it...

I was coming back from some place I never should have been, when I crashed my car into a highway guardrail. I was in a blackout drunk in the middle of the night. A cop pulled up, flashed his blues, and pulled me out of the highway— but he didn’t arrest me. He put me...

I passed a law here. I testified, built up a grassroots base across the state, was on the news, in the papers, and at the capitol. Law enforcement now carry opioid overdose reversal kits. Since the law was passed: 565 reversals so far. I get emails from all across the...

The person who prosecuted me for smoking pot was the same person I used to get high with.

It was an out of body experience, I was in an entirely detached place of reality. After a night of adding alcohol and pot to my Paxil-filled bloodstream, I started a fire in a building that was closed for renovations. Most folks at my age have accomplished certain...

One day I asked myself: Who am I now? Who can I be? In prison, I filled myself with white, black, and Native teachings. I felt so bad, I knew I needed to be good and do good. So here’s who I am: I’m a loyal son, husband, brother, father, and close friend. And I give...

I was born into poverty. I lived on a reservation with my adopted siblings, a pocket full of food stamps, a dad under constant stress, and a mom addicted to opiates. One uncle died of cirrhosis, another killed himself after killing someone else. I traded an Xbox for...

I don’t really know how to start. I feel like this might get a little emotional. Just sayin’. I was the three in four; I’m now the one in four. It seems like society is telling me that I’m now a bad person, that I’m a statistic, and that I should question the value in...