A Lifer's Story

I’ve been 20 years in this prison, for a horrible crime I committed while in an alcoholic blackout. Even so, I still maintained an attitude that, since I had a life sentence, I would stay as drunk as possible as much as possible. I did not want to deal with the feelings around the fact that I would never be released from prison. During my crime, I’d also been stabbed in the spine, which left me with some paralysis in my right leg and forced me to walk with a leg brace ... a perfect reason to dive very deep into self-pity.