Christopher Poulos: How I went from prison to Capitol Hill

In a society, or in any society with any of its cultural peculiarities, people share some common ideas. The hunger for perfection, the hunt for excellence, the indiscriminate competitiveness, and our intolerance towards the mistakes of others, has often led neighbors, distant relatives and “known strangers” to reach an absolute dark swamp and to never again stand on their own feet. Either because of the fact that nobody was there to lift them, or because of the fear of falling down once more, left them on the ground. Christopher Poulos was serving time for drug trafficking in the federal prisons of Pennsylvania during the time of the 2008 USA elections. Eight years later, he gave his first speech in TEDxDirigo, while simultaneously being an undergraduate in law school, and having cooperated with Congress and Obama’s government.
 
The same man can convince you, better than me, that self-destruction and absolute grounding is not the only way. What remains, is the choice to change your mentality which will persuade you to follow a positive course, to accept help and gradually recover fully.
 
If you choose to live in an ocean of “no-s”, with the belief that it is impossible to make it through the absolute, then it is similarly impossible to hear a big “yes” on a random day, which will change your whole life.
 
Leaving behind his dark past, Christopher decided to follow an entirely different path. In his efforts to make a new beginning, having as his first goal to be accepted in Law School, he faced many problems and hardships. Despite the fact that the right to knowledge and education is the same for everyone, at least in the western world, prejudices and fixed perceptions for ex-convicts, has led him in an endless battle to convince everyone that his past must not be what defines his future.
 
The initially positive response of the dean of Law School, when he announced that he wishes to study Law, was replaced by second thoughts about Christopher’s past. He felt crushed and disappointed that the wrong decisions of the past now prevented him from succeeding in his future endeavors. Nevertheless, his perseverance and his belief that no one but himself can define his future, have led him to grab the chance he believed he deserved. Christopher managed to convince the academic community that they should not condemn him to a lifelong sentence, by preventing him from realizing his dream.
 
Since then, he was accepted to Law School and he made his course change for the better in a way paved with a lot of personal effort which in return offered him excellence.
 
In a society where ex-convicts are considered as second-rate citizens, we need to eradicate this obstacle and offer equal opportunities to each and every one of us. In particular, we need to reconsider criminal justice and addiction policies as a whole. Most drug users, who are involved in illegal activities, would never shift towards them unless they were addicted.
 
 When the social environment we live in does not leave room for errors, we need to showcase double the will and effort in order to change our lives and lift ourselves up again. But our rebirth and recovery would be easier, if society was ready to receive us without constantly reminding how our mistakes are what define us and not decisions which keep making us better.

 

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