Author: mpau@thebeatwithin.org

-B, Sacramento  My first experience with true love, pure love is with my daughter. My moms tried to provide that for me. My child’s mother tried to give that to me, but the love my mother showed me didn’t process in my mind what it really was.  So, I suffered from abandonment issues and I would push away the people who loved me, until I met my daughter in person. It changed my whole world and perspective on love and how to love, so I’ve been working on myself.            You have to love yourself before

-Efrain, San Mateo My proudest accomplishment has to be learning how to learn from my mistakes. Even right now, I’m taking every loss as a lesson instead of letting it get to me and letting it make me feel worse. Even in situations like this, I’ve got to learn to not let things get to me.  Even if the situation is big or small, I know eventually I’ll go home. Even if it isn’t anytime soon, I’ll use this to endure and hopefully not go back to what I used to do, because I don’t want to end up dead

-Mardell, San Bernardino Change is one of the most mandatory aspects of life. With change comes growth and new experiences, even if these new changes come off as scary or terrifying.  They need to happen for our character, our lives, our relationships. Change can be beautiful — things like flowers, caterpillars, nature in general. Without change, we wouldn’t see these beautiful things. Change is wonderful, terrifying, and necessary.  If we do not change, we do not grow. 

by Londell, San Francisco This is a breakdown of 2023. This past year I learned about accomplishing things and doing better things. This year I experienced some things that are not healthy and some that are. It’s difficult looking back on 2023 because it was a better year than the one that just started.  The start of my 2024 is kind of going bad. It’s bad because I can’t go home. When I look back on 2023 the biggest lesson I learned was not to come to jail, but I still came. It’s important to reflect on what we have

by SB, Sacramento  “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” -Lord Byron When they say, “Always laugh when you can,” it’s true because I have a cousin at the age of twelve who had surgery. He lost both his legs and all his fingers. He was depressed because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do the stuff that he wanted to do.  Before the surgery, he was playing flag football. He didn’t like the fact that his friends were still having fun and he wasn’t. His friends stopped being friends with him for the fact he