What Prison Taught Me About Freedom

If there’s one thing being incarcerated should have taught me, it’s that patience is a virtue. But if I’m being completely honest, I only practiced patience while I was actually locked up. It only applied to me in prison because I didn’t have a choice—I had to be patient.

I wasn’t going anywhere until I either hit my release date or became eligible for parole and was granted it.

What prison really made me realize is that most of the individuals who found success after being released were the ones who took that same mindset—patience is a virtue—back into society with them.

I had to understand that life is a marathon, not a sprint.

Every move has to be strategic and calculated. Like on a chessboard, you have to think two or three moves ahead. If something isn’t working out, you have to be ready to pivot and stand on whatever decision you make.

Prison also showed me something else: some of the most innovative, creative people in the world are currently incarcerated. There’s talent in those cells. There are ideas, inventions, and visions that could change lives.

But talent and creativity don’t mean anything if you’re not free to apply them.

We take freedom for granted. I had to learn that the hard way. Because without freedom, you can’t really make any noise.