FEATURE STORY IN PACIFIC NW MAGAZINE, 9/24/2006
If you want to build a life of success and prosperity, you’ve got to draw your line in the sand—let the world know that you’re moving in a new direction. I strive to show others how making such an affirmative statement to grow can lead to new opportunities. The profile available at the link below validates the story of how a journey that starts in struggle can move into prosperity.
Here is the background. On August 11, 1987, when I was 23, authorities took me into custody. I sold cocaine and I faced serious charges. At the time of my arrest, I was not ready to accept responsibility. Instead, I continued making bad decisions, like pleading not guilty and going through trial.
Stuart Eskenazi, a journalist, covered the story of my trial for the local newspaper.
After a jury convicted me, I made a decision to work toward reconciling with society. Socrates inspired me to want to change, to want to grow. I began building a pathway to success. And to memorialize the change in my mindset, I wrote a letter to Stuart Eskenazi, the journalist. In the letter, I told him that I would spend every day in confinement working to make amends and to grow. If he wanted to discuss my plan, he could visit me in the jail.
That letter represented my line in the sand. Stuart visited me in the Pierce County Jail. He interviewed me. That interview led to a front-page story.
Twenty years later, I was still in prison. But I’d made a lot of progress. I was then confined at the federal prison in Lompoc, California. Stuart flew from Seattle to Lompoc to interview me for a feature story in the Pacific NW Magazine. In the article, he confirms what I told him at the start of my journey, and wrote about the progress I made during my first two decades in prison.