SUFFERING IS OPTIONAL

It was snowing very hard. All I could see were big snowflakes through the bars, outside the window at the Ossining Correctional Facility. I had been sentenced to five to fifteen years in prison and I was waiting to be sent further up north to another maximum-security prison. All my life I tried to portray a tough guy image in order to survive, but after being around hard-core inmates, I knew I did not belong. Nevertheless, I needed to survive. So, plenty of pushups and potatoes were required. Years of alcoholism, drug-abuse, and homelessness had taken their toll on me. As I sat there in my cell, I wondered what had gone wrong in my life. I did not know about alcoholism, but I knew, deep in my heart, that alcohol and drugs were the chief cause of all my problems.