My day in prison

I usually start my day from washing myself, then I go to the morning attention and after that I clean my cell, eat breakfast  and I learn English, then dinner, a short nap till supper, after supper I go to the gym three times a week, in the evening I usually watch TV, not every day is the same that is why I will try to describe the one which was unusual. 

            It was Sunday and I was waiting for my parents, who were supposed to visit me. I woke up and after the morning attention I was preparing myself  for the meeting walking around the cell impatiently. Suddenly the door opened and I heard that somebody was waiting for me. I immediately felt better. When I entered the meeting room, I greeted my parents and we started talking on different topics. Then I realized what the most important things  in life are and it made me think about my life. I know my parents love me a lot and they help me every difficult moment of my life because they want my happiness. After two hours together, we said “Good bye” and I came back to my place and to my monotonous life. When I slowly got into myself, I changed the clothes, lied down to think over a few things in my life. I came to the conclusion that by breaking the law I destroyed not only my life but also my family’s life. Life is too short to waste it in prison, I know I can’t stop the time but I can use the rest of the sentence in a positive way. I decided to do something with my personality  and learn a foreign language which in the future will help me to communicate abroad. When I leave prison, I am going to work abroad because I have got some experience in working in this country. The Bible says “Who works slowly will achieve nothing, but the one who works hard will gain a lot”. We appreciate freedom when we lose it, no sooner. So I will do whatever I can to lead a just and fair life, to start a family and to live just as other people. I wrote these words because I hope they will be useful for someone who will read them. While talking to other inmates, I noticed that most of them dream about huge amounts of money, planning another crimes, and as a matter of fact these dreams  are very fragile and only the real reality is left. And before the inmates are free, they lose half of their lives behind bars. I think there is no use to waste life and this Sunday made me come to such conclusions – that is why it was special for me.

Marcin P.

                                                                                (Poland)

Translated by Joanna Wiśniewska

Society  and identity

            I was born in a small village, where everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everything about you. In the childhood I used to go with my mother to the nearest shop and there I listened to the conversations of old women, who were gossiping about the men standing near the shop – they were said to drink too much, beat wives and swearing the priest. According to these women, the men were from the margin of the society and as a matter of fact it wasn’t important what the situation was really like. For them it wasn’t important that some of them were working on the field all the time, that they had three or four children and unpaid loans. Only their opinion counted, nothing more. I – as a small child – didn’t understand many things, I wanted to be a good son, to help at home and to become a really respected man for these women. I though that these women’s opinion about me was the most important. Some years passed, I started my own family, I moved to a bigger city and I started to wonder what to live for, because I wanted to be independent. I started to deal with trade and selling different goods on a market. I also had a chance to meet bad people. I started to ignore my wife’s opinion, to go for beer every day, I met different women and this caused the collapse of my marriage. First she left me, that she demanded a divorce.

            I started to break down, drink more and neglect my job. When I lost all my income and I was left with no money at all, I began doing many illegal businesses, starting from smuggling cigarettes and alcohol and finishing on mugging and burglaries. I didn’t care what people said about me, only money and friends were important for me. It was a new world for me which fascinated me and let me to make a lot of money quickly. I lead a life of a gangster – I felt like them – I was not afraid of anything or anyone. If someone tried tricks with me, I took my friends and “cleared” things up. I became a highwayman who people were afraid of.  I started to have problems with the police, then with the court, and finally I ended up in prison. It’s been two years since then and now while lying on my bed I come to the conclusion that the proverb “Clothes make the man” is very true. Because everyone lives in a society and whether he likes it or not, he has to. My society destroyed me and my marriage. Because in my opinion society is not the whole country or a city, but the people you live with.

Just as the women from my village, any society can give you a badge with the information who you are and what you do. I was pointed with a finger, there were gossips about me to my wife. The same society made stupid nonsense for the society interview concerning me, this society called me a black sheep.

            Now I live in the society as well, but it is isolated from the outside world, but recently I have come to conclusion that I don’t want to be the person I used to be. I know that the identity can be changed, and the society you live can be changes as well.

That is why I am planning my life!

                                                                                                Anon (Poland)