Before getting locked up, I had previously been running with the local gang and crew, gangbanging hard and living violently. I was throwing my life away, totally unconfident in potential for a bright future, and not even expecting to live past the age of I was locked up for the first time in my life, locked up for fighting at the mall.
I was fighting to impress my fellow gang members, the gang being my only friends. I was nineteen. My friend Clarence Big C and I were locked up together, his bail and charge were the same as mine.
I stayed in jail for two months. The floor I was currently on had about guys. One group of about guys were all facing the same murder charge, with one guy walking around saying if he was going down, he was taking all those guys with him. I met Big Ski, a Muslim brother who had big muscles and a big afro, and the respect of every man, as far as I could tell. He was about 25 at the time, he spoke with wisdom that made him seem a lot older.
He began to take interest in me, speaking to me about many topics, encouraging me to change my life for the better.
We sat together every morning at breakfast and played dominoes and chess together. We went to class, and I applied myself. The scores were posted on a computer printout the last week of the class. I was instructed to take the form with my test score on it to Mott Adult High School when I got out of jail.
