{"id":5662,"date":"2020-01-15T12:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T18:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/?p=5662"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:55:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:55:20","slug":"week-17-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/2020\/01\/15\/week-17-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Week\nin Review<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, January 6, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s amazing what we can do when\nwe put our minds to a specific goal. To achieve that goal is even more amazing.\nI think it\u2019s safe to say that all of us who have made it this far set a goal to\ngraduate this class. It is now our goal to become better men \u2013 thankfully, PEP\nhas taught us a number of skills that will help us achieve such a goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most important thing we learned\nas a class was how to hold ourselves accountable. It\u2019s easy to blame others\nmost of the time, but the fact is that we\u2019re just making excuses not to hold\nourselves to a higher standard. The process of looking within ourselves and\nrealizing that we are the ones at fault is transformative. That is why in class\nit\u2019s often reiterated that we hold each other accountable. Sometimes a few of\nus can take advantage of this principle \u2013 instead of using it to help a fellow\nbrother, it can be used out of spite. But at the end of the day, it\u2019s only\nthrough this rigorous transformation process that we will make it through\nrefined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it stands now, most of us\nhave been refined. Whether through the character development piece, Robert\nLewis\u2019 Men\u2019s Fraternity sessions or learning to embody PEP\u2019s 10 Driving Values,\neach of us has learned something new about ourselves and each other. We are all\nunique and now possess better tools and concepts to assist us as we progress\nthrough our individual lives. None of can honestly say with integrity that PEP\nwas a waste of time. The time put into this program has been well worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navy\nA. (a.k.a. \u201cTom Hanks\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, January 7, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today was a day to learn\nlesson after lesson during our time in the computer lab. Yes, we understand how\nto use basic Windows programs such as Excel, Office and PowerPoint. Yet there\nare those of us who remain technologically challenged. So we learn a much\ndifferent lesson: patience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning something new is\noften a daunting process. However, we know that these lessons are essential to\nour overall education in how the world around us works. For some of us, this is\nsomething that takes a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technological side of\nthings are often harder to master. Without patience, we would never win this\ngame. Excel is a great example of a particular skill set may employers require.\nSo understanding this program is simply essential in business today. We have\nbeen afforded a great opportunity here through PEP to learn such skill sets.\nFor those of us who have been incarcerated for extended periods, we find such\nopportunities to be indispensable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a team of Peer\nEducators who have graduated from previous classes and continue to give back to\nthe program. These men help those of us who do not know how to navigate\ntechnology to do so and become more proficient. While they do not have to give\nback, they do so willingly. This is a good lesson in patience. It has to take a\ngreat level of personal control to teach patience. Just seeing the level of\nkindness gained by such individuals here in prison makes those of us in the\nWinter 2020 class want to contribute as well. So the lessons we learn are the\nexact lessons we in turn teach in order to become greater people at the other\nend of PEP. And to our Peer Educators, we want to say \u201cgreat job!\u201d fostering in\nus the desire to learn important business skills and master patience so that we\ncan enjoy a much greater and brighter future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jimmy\nA. (a.k.a. \u201cCindy Lauper\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, January 8, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today marked a special day in\nour course toward our goal to graduate the Prison Entrepreneurship Program: we\nfinally started to practice our graduation walk. We all looked proud and happy,\nbecause a lot of us thought we never would see the light at the end of the\ntunnel. As we practiced our graduation walk, we all executed the walk with few\nmistakes; we also held ourselves to higher standards and accountability when\nsome of us made minor mistakes. We want that very moment to be perfect because\nour loved ones are going to be present, and for a lot of us it has been years\nsince we last saw them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We heard words of\nencouragement from David F., Gami J. and the Peer Educators, and we realized\nour time to give back is closer than expected. David F. gave us a few quotes\nfrom the Bible and told us all things are possible through our faith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work is an important part of\nlife, and it should be fun and rewarding \u2013 so today, we had fun. We started\nworking on our Coat of Arms that will be given to our families on graduation\nday. Being in a place where you can be yourself really reminds us that we are\nstill human, even if we are in the situation that we are in. As our day ended,\nwe put our stuff away and thanked each other for the encouragement that was\nspread around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s crazy to see that we\nreally have grown and our view of things has really spun around 180 degrees. We\nall care about each other and know that we are really loved by the executives who\nvolunteer their time with us. Thank you to everyone who believes in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\nA. (a.k.a. \u201cNacho Libre\u201d)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, January 9, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We got\nto class at 7:30 this morning, and it was so good. We greeted each other, and\nall we talked about was what happened this weekend. Some of us talked about\nfootball and some of us talked about the visits we had with our families. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nso crazy that so many different people have the same interests in mind when it\ncomes to PEP. We also discussed graduation and how all the pressure we have\nbeen enduring all year will finally be lifted off of us. We are ready to get\ninto the world and start our lives in the right direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ntook our second to last test and sang \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to one of our brothers.\nWe were then shown a video that involved character traits and how every single\none of the choices we make can either hinder or help us. The video talked a lot\nabout emotional control and how we as human beings are used to acting on\ninstinct, but if we were able to slow ourselves down and think everything\nthrough first, we would be fine. It also stated that we shouldn\u2019t let our\ntemptations get the best of us and that we should find something healthy to\nreplace those temptations with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in\nall today was a good day, and the time that we share with each other is\ncherished. We are ready for graduation and prepared to give back any way we can\nto this great program that brought out the best in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yancy\nB. (a.k.a. \u201cDexter\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expressions                                                                                     \n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA neglected strength can become one\u2019s\ngreatest weakness.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nquote has been such an inspiration to me and my life because it reminds me of\nthe times and years when I couldn\u2019t do some of the things that I wanted to do\nbecause I wasn\u2019t good at it. Then I realized that all I had to do was take the\ntime I needed out of my day to focus more on what I couldn\u2019t do and mold it\ninto something that I could do. All it takes is time and dedication to\naccomplish this. While doing this, I was able to prove to myself that nothing\nis impossible and that my so-called \u201cweakness\u201d could easily become my strength.\nSo many times, I gave up on something just because I didn\u2019t want to fail or\nlook like an insane man trying to break an unstoppable cycle. Now I believe\nthat no matter what stands in my way, with time and effort, it can be conquered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see\nthis type of thing happen every day \u2013 people say they don\u2019t want to do\nsomething that they think they can\u2019t do. They have never put any effort into\ntrying to do it because if they had, they would be surprised at what they would\nsee. You have to want something as much as you want to breathe to get where you\nwant to be. Motivational speaker Eric Thomas once said, \u201cThe only person that\nowes you something is yourself.\u201d Nobody owes us anything, and we have to spend\nour energy wisely to accomplish anything of value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never\nstop chasing something that you want, because you\u2019re only limiting yourself.\nStrive to succeed and never be denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip B. (a.k.a. \u201cUncle Elroy\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week in Review Monday, January 6, 2020 It\u2019s amazing what we can do when we put our minds to a specific goal. To achieve that goal is even more amazing. I think it\u2019s safe to say that all of us who have made it this far set a goal to graduate this class. It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}