ISSUE NO. 3
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September 2024
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Letters

Reflect and Change

Anonymous

The author is writing from Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Silverwater, New South Wales.

Credit: 'Depth IV' by Spectrum, $400, #5064, 76 x 60cm, acrylic on canvas. Available to purchase at https://www.nsw.gov.au/arts-and-culture/boom-gate-gallery

I’m an inmate who spent the last 20 months in MRRC. I was 24 when I was under arrest. During this time, I lost everything I valued before. I lost my reputation by news, which made lots of friends leave this ‘horrible’ me. I borrowed and spent all my money on a lawyer, I also was expelled from school in my senior year. I went to the worst situation of my life.

I know there are many brothers who also struggle in the same or worse situation as me, but I got something many brothers didn’t get during this time. It’s changing from reflection.

Nobody would like to be pushed to change, including me. Sometimes reflection and changing won’t make life easier, even harder. We have to come out from our comfortable zone to some strange and unfamiliar lifestyle. We have to put in a lot of effort. But you have to know all this hard time is temporary.

First, nobody wants to come back in jail again. You have to do the ‘surgery’ and ‘cut off’ your issue. Of course every surgery is hurt, but without hurt we could never be better. So it can also help us to come back after jail. That’s how reflection and change benefit us.

Who else would benefit after we change from reflection? It’s people around us. Family and friends also could get a good inspiration.

Yes, we may have a bad history but it doesn’t mean we cannot have a good future.

Treating others well is a big step for a new ‘nice guy’. We could make our family and friends get some relief, their life is also tough because of us. Please remember this, we should use our good behaviour to treat them well. How to behave well? That’s from reflection and changing.

Last, life is a long journey. As I said, there will still be a good future for us. Everyone’s journey will get setbacks, so do we. Please learn from this experience.

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger no matter what situation is in front of us.

We have a responsibility to our life. It’s never too late to make change. We should make our future better, that’s why we have to reflect and change for our long life journey.

Brothers and sisters, please believe in me, and believe in us. We could make a big change for our beautiful life in the future from reflection. Some of us lost everything. We got nothing to lose, but to try and change from reflection.

Good luck.

This
letter
was originally printed in the
September 2024
edition of About Time.
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