Grant Me THE COURAGE

摘要

How do you define yourself? This is a question that I've asked myself countless times. Mainly the answer has been a hyphenated jumble of the many labels that I acquired over the years.I started out as a good kid, but I had issues that I did not know how to face. Attempting to combat them, I subjected myself to addiction at an early age and for the next fourteen years, no matter what else I was, I defined myself as an "addict" first. Everything I did either started or ended with drugs. The tenacity and ingenuity I employed to fuel my addiction were astounding. My selfishness astonishing: my life was about my drugs and myself and an honest word rarely escaped my lips. Eventually I quietly laid aside my last remaining shreds of restraint and humanity and became an absolute monster. It was in this state that at age 27,1 would finally find myself in prison. For the next nine years I was defined onlv as an "inmate."