“Anything Lost Can Be Found Again Except For Time Wasted!” This quote from Kevin Gates in actuality is lyrics but it touches home for me. In my experiences being incarcerated, we take countless things for granted. The most of all is time. Our children’s time, I think, is one of the major areas we wish we could find again, yet, cannot be made up. We feel like when freedom is our reality, we will try to make up for things we miss but realistically we can only go from that day forward.
On a more subtle note, other things we find to be minute in our freedom that are valued so much more in captivity are pens, light switches, phones, paper pictures, memorizing numbers, real sugar and milk, glittery cards, good music, bowls, silverware, good lotion, finger nail files, and chalk. That’s just a few of the items in here we treat like a delicacy if ever obtainable that we don’t even give a second thought to on the streets. When on the town, things like the weather don’t affect people like me as much.
Now currently, I want to go outside anytime the sun is out. At home, I’m rarely an outdoor person. We take things like nature for granted. We crave consistency in here because we can control our days. Yet, out there in the streets every day is unpredictable when trappin’ or using. We control so little in here that even having small choices in here is valued so much more. I just want this to be an eye opener to how small minded we become to things that are insignificant in the real world but should always be valued. Our perception of things changes so much depending on our circumstances and personal experiences. We gotta start counting our small blessings we usually don’t even acknowledge.