Whole Steps

On april 6, 2007, i celebrated twelve years of sobriety and then turned fifty the following day. I am serving a thirty-five year federal sentence that I began on August 18, 1988. Federal law requires that I serve thirty years without parole. I value the life that I live today, but it has not always been that way--after my arrest I was suicidal. I thought my life was over. I knew I would probably spend the rest of my life in prison, but a resentment made me want to live. My plan was to live and to get even.