by Chad Fitzpatrick, Correctional Facility in Moose Lake, Minnesota
I recently watched a movie on T.V called “Freedom Writers.” It’s about a teacher who encourages her sophomore English class who many are from the inner-city and are gang members to write in a journal every day. It didn’t matter what it was they wrote or how much they wrote as long as they wrote in it every day. They would not be graded on it nor would they be read unless they wanted her to read them.
Every time I see that movie it inspires me more to keep on writing. It reminds me of The Beat Within and all that they do by going into all the juvenile detention centers, the prisons and out in the communities and holding writing workshops. They are out there every week teaching and encouraging the young, the old, the incarcerated, and the free to write.
How I was taught to write seventeen years ago and still do is to just write and not worry about spelling, sentence and paragraph arrangement. All that I can come back later, and do my priority is to just write whatever is on my mind.
It doesn’t matter what you write, how you write or how much you write, but what does matter is that at least you give writing a try. It doesn’t matter if you are not the best speller or know anything about sentence or paragraph structure you can always learn that shhh later, so I encourage you to just write.
I write about my life experiences, my struggles, and the things I’ve learned along the way through my journey call my life. I’ve not been in the free world since I was 22 years old, and in June I will be 45 years old, so what I know is what it is like growing up in prison.
Maybe through my writing and experiences and lessons someone else reading this maybe can relate or is going through the same or similar thing and could benefit from it and know that they are not alone.
At times, I struggle with writing due to TBI(Traumatic Brain Injury) due to a very traumatic assault that happened back in 2005 that lasted seven and a half minutes before squad got to me I was dead and they had to bring me back to life. Since then my IQ has dropped down to 70, which is in the borderline nominal category, but I continue to write. There are times that I can write with ease and then there are times that writing is very difficult for me but I do not give up and just press on.
Before the assault I was a G.E.D. tutor for 4 years but after the assault and due to the TBI I could no longer be a tutor due to my own educational level declining. I went from a 12th, grade education level to now a 5th grade education level, but people would not necessarily know unless I told them, and some people don’t notice. Everyone has a story and owning a story can be hard but not as difficult as spending our lives running from it and that’s why I encourage you to write.
The movie Freedom writer’s is exactly about that. Sharing who you are, where you come from. By sharing your story or just a little bit about yourself. Maybe someone will be able to relate to you and that may even open conversations with people and friendships.
So I leave you with this, there are many forms of writing: writing a rap, writing a poem, writing a memoir, writing a fiction story, etc. So are you willing to give writing a try? Until pen meets paper again keep expressing yourself, keep writing, and keep being you.