Hi. This is Mr. Jenkins from Corcoran State Prison. Today’s topic will be “The Man in the Mirror.” The reason why I picked this topic is because in the prison system, we have a lot of young men and young women that doesn’t know about what, who they are. When we say that is, how many masks you have when you see in the mirror? Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen more than just yourself in the mirror? Or your face is a mask that you have and then you ask yourself, which one? Which one is me? So, in the prison we do that. We look in the mirror, and a lot of prisoners does not see they self. They only see one, and the one that they see is the one that they believe that that’s the one that they should carry. In reality, it’s more than one, because you have your bad and your good and your negative. You have your manipulator, you have your abuser, you have your controller. So, you have a lot of faces, and looking in the mirror, you can find out exactly what face are you going to carry that day and who are you going to be that day.
Because every day your mood swings. Your mood swing changes as your face changes. Yes, you still look the same on a certain level, but inside is different. You know, as a male, you know we shave, and in prison, we try to present ourselves presentable so when we get ready to get out, we look presentable out there in the world that we have been gone for so long. We’re gone. As a female; they try to prepare they self looking decent as for they self, for they family, or even for a companion. So, in a way, we try to be in here — we look — as It’s more it’s important in here than is even out there.
But looking in the mirror, people are afraid to look in the mirror. People are afraid to see they self to who they really are, and can they work on it? The whole issue is, when you see that person that you feel that that’s not me, but you’re looking at it. What does it take to change that? What does it take to push that away? Because the less people you see in the mirror as yourself, the better off; you will be more and a little bit more successful. Because if you are a negative person, and you see negative person in the mirror, then you are going to work on that to get that person away from you, so the next time you look in the mirror you don’t see that person no more, that you saw.
So, my thing is, always know, don’t be afraid to look in the mirror to see who are you and what do you need to do to work on that? Because you the only one can do that. Nobody else can. You always to be yourself, not somebody else. Don’t let the person in the mirror that taking over you continue that because you have a lot of masks, and the best mask is the success mask – the success person. The person that know how to respect others and to treat other with respect – that’s the person that you want to see. And with that, I’m going to leave. My name is Mr. Jenkins, and to respond to me, you can write me. My CDC number is BM45224B3RC-58 PO Box 3481, Corcoran, California, that’s 93212. I would like to hear from you in this letter. I’ll respond it and tell me what you think about it and feedback on it, because it’s important for me to know how the people really feel when they hear things like that, because even out there, people are going through the same thing, and they don’t realize that they are. It’s not only in the prison system, it’s out there too.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
