Do Not Give Up

I have recently been going through the process to be hired on with the City of Everett, Washington as a Para-Transit Operator. Though my felony conviction is over seven years old, I know that it will be brought up at some point in the hiring process. Some of you may ask why then, did I even apply? Well, I look at it this way...if I do not try then I have no one to blame for my failure other than myself.

As I have said, I am a published poet with one book out now called "The Spoken Spirit: Thunder's Spirit Speaks" and a second book sitting at the publisher's text department waiting for me to get all the legal documents in for using some real people's names. (The second book is titled "Wolf's Whispers: The Spoken Spirit, Part 2.") Now, if I thought that I could not become a published poet, then I would not have gone through the tasks of writing it in a manuscript form, let alone send it into the publisher.

I do not allow nothing to get in my way, especially the fact that I am a convicted felon. For those of you who say that you cannot do something because of your felony, then you are only setting up yourself for failure. If you fail at anything after you are known to others as a convicted felon, it is because of what you did not do...follow your heart.

I applied with the City of Everett because I am tired of trying to live the life of what society chooses for those of us who branded as ex-cons. I feel that I am better than what people who have not been convicted think of me. I feel that it is worth me TRYING, with all my heart and soul, to do something that I feel would make me happy doing.

In closing, if you are not happy with your life as being a convicted felon, then by God, stop standing around and waiting for something to happen. MAKE THINGS HAPPEN FOR YOU!!