“Rise Like a Phoenix”- Free Minds Mentor Brian McEwen speaks to Reentry Support Members
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McEwen, 43, did 17 (going on 18) years behind bars. Since he was released six years ago, he has made it his life goal to not only improve his own life, but to help others do the same. McEwen recognizes that getting out--and staying out--of jail is never easy. He said that jail always changes a person, for better or for worse, and sometimes those friends who might not have experienced that don't understand the severity of the situation. For some, going out to a club may seem like nothing, but if a fight breaks out and you're on parole, McEwen said, then you've got a problem. "You have to pick the friends that can help motivate you…You really have to build a bond, and you need someone who's going to help you further yourself…You help elevate each other."
. He asked the Free Minds members what they wanted to achieve by the age of 30, and listened as the two young men talked about their dream careers. McEwen emphasized how he worked long hours and avoided buying expensive things in order to save money for the future. Some people are fixated on material things, but those things can be taken away from you. "If you have a degree, an education, nobody can take it away from you." When one young man talked about what he wanted to do if he got his high school diploma, McEwen quickly said, "Never say 'if.' Say 'when.'" The young man smiled and corrected himself: "When I get my high school diploma…"
"The system," he said, "it is what it is. You have to be able to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and surpass what is going on in the community."
Reporting on the event in his journal later that afternoon, one Reentry Support member summarized it evocatively:
I felt good because now I see what people was trying to tell me before I got locked up and when I was doing things I wasn’t supposed to be doing. Hearing about his life made me look at things a different way because I got blessed and got another chance in life. I feel like he doing a good job by helping kids stay out of trouble and stop beefing out here because life is to short for that. I really felt where he was coming from.
Read an interview with Brian