Week 13

Week in Review

Monday July 9, 2018

Are you aware that we take a course on giving public speeches? We do, and it is called Toastmasters – it is totally awesome. On Monday we were holding our second to final Toastmasters class in the PEP classroom. You see, we give 10 speeches of differing lengths and goals to help our speaking skills progress. Our last speech is 8 to 10 minutes long, and we have some serious fun giving it. We heard speeches about a vast number of topics, and when they get funny, they just keep on going. We love it and are truly sorry to see this part of the curriculum come to an end.

But that’s not the main reason for this journal entry. We want to acknowledge one of our PEP Family Liaisons, Ms. Laura S. She is a woman of selfless action and does her job with love and caring. She helps make sure our family members register to come see our graduation. She shared all of the phone calls she and her team have made to our families. These three Family Liaisons are helping keep our families informed so we can graduate not just with our PEP brothers, but our families as well. Laura S. showed up and got all our final arrangements made. From Toastmasters to our Family Liaison meeting, we had an eventful, wonderfully fun day.

We are about to get to the end of our course and graduate, and it’s because of the volunteers, PEP employees and executives who push us and encourage us on this path of success. Legacy ‘18 will continue with PEP’s tradition of success, motivation and of course a life and future based on our 10 Driving Values. We wish to say thank you to Laura S. for her devotion to getting our families to graduation.

Jack O. (a.k.a. “Flap Jack”)

Tuesday July 10, 2018

Today in the PEP room, our class facilitated the class of Winter ‘19. A lot of us have different job duties to perform and are expected to do them with excellence. In class, we watched a Robert Lewis video, where he talked about wounds of the past, such as the father wound. After the video was over, we broke up into small groups to talk about how the session affected us. This was followed by a presentation from two speakers, Noe U. and Jeremy S., a couple of our Phase Two brothers, who talked about character traits many of us have. When they finished, we took a small break and went to lunch at 10:05. Then we came back to class so that we could finish the presentations.

We had a special guest join us from the Cleveland Unit. He gave the class a lot of good advice about the program and told us not to give up. When class was over, we came back to the pod. Around 2 p.m., we went to the computer lab, where we continued to work on our assignments. Some of us worked on our financials so that we can use them in our business plans and business pitches. Once we left the computer lab we went back to the pod to study and quiz each other for tomorrow’s upcoming test on entrepreneurship and the importance of the legal foundations when filing for bankruptcy.

Matthew. P (a.k.a. “Corn Dog”)

Wednesday July 11, 2018

We started our day with the morning ritual of praying in and thanking God for all He has done for us in PEP. After prayer we showed love by shaking hands and then reading the word of the day. And then we took our entrepreneurship test. As our morning continued, we prepared for our final business lecture on franchising and purchasing an existing business. This was our final lecture by our instructor, Brian T. He will truly be missed as he continues his journey with PEP at the Cleveland Unit. Our time with Brian T. was an awesome experience. He taught us a lot about life in general as well as business. We will be forever thankful for his time and patience. One saying he would always share with us after our test scores results was, “Progress, not perfection!” We will never be perfect, but we can always make progress. Brian is a nice guy. He was very understanding, but he would also challenge us to do our best. It is very inspiring for us to see one of our own doing so well. We absolutely hope and pray that our brother Brian will continue to raise the bar and clear a path for the rest of the PEP brothers.

We took our first test on the book Crime and Punishment. It was difficult, but we are learning a lot of new vocabulary and this should help us to communicate better. We are going to start devoting more time to our business pitches, even though many of us have been practicing already.

Rodolfo P. (a.k.a. “Drama Queen”)

Thursday July 12, 2018

All the glory goes to God. Today our class facilitated the class of Winter ‘19. Their class still doesn’t have a name, but they will once they get into Phase Two. The first thing we did in class was watch a Robert Lewis video about many wounds that many of us go through in life, such as the mother wound. This wound consists of having our mothers overly bonded with us. Then we broke up into our Men’s Fraternity groups to talk about this wound with each other. Our class of Legacy ‘18 was assigned a group of our Phase One brothers to listen to and mentor. After that, we had two brothers from our class dance their way to the front of the room and introduce themselves and then give a presentation over a topic that many of us want to do: change. Change is not easy and is meant to hurt, but when we heard their testimonies and how these brothers changed, it helps us all see that there is a better way of life. After this, we then called on a few Phase One brothers to dance their way to the front of the room to receive an “sweet name.” This is always a fun and exciting part of the day because of all the laughter.  Before class ended, we had some more fun and challenged the class to a game of Jeopardy over PEP’s rules and 10 Driving Values. Our day was fun in the PEP room. After we prayed out, we went back to the pods to focus on our business pitches.

                                   Mayobanex S. (a.k.a. “Miracle Whip”)

Expressions

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists … it is real … it is possible … it’s yours.

~ Ayn Rand

This quote has really encouraged me to strive and press forward when I go through things by being in prison. It also helps me to help others who go through the same heartaches, downfalls and challenges. God allowed this quote to help me to think right whenever any negativity tries to creep into my mind or into my life. Most importantly, it helps me to stay positive and give off positive energy so that others can feed off of it as well.

Your mind is like a garden – what you plant is what you reap. It has also helped me grow in my walk with the Lord. Just remember: it is possible. Everything is possible, and it’s yours. Don’t let anything disturb or frighten you. Everything passes away except for God.

Michael S. (a.k.a. “Dumbo”)