{"id":9813,"date":"2019-07-24T18:54:36","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T23:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/?p=5506"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:55:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:55:01","slug":"week-17-7-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/2019\/07\/24\/week-17-7-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 17"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Monday, July 15, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today was a day of excitement\nand joy as we began practicing our walk for graduation. Just like most things\nin life, this was no easy task for us. We enjoyed the jokes; we enjoyed the\nsuccess we had completing the practice run; but most importantly, we enjoyed\nthe new us. With the 10 Driving Values we\u2019ve applied to our lives, we can say\nwith confidence that we are no longer products of the dark places we once\ncalled home. We can instead now say that we have the tools to rebuild our lives\nwhen we are released, and that\u2019s more than what we could have asked for, because\nit is rare to come out with the tools and support found in a band of brothers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of us have seen the\ntrail in the sky that\u2019s left when life goes by, but we also get to see the works\nof God in our lives. We expressed today how difficult it was to go through this\nprocess. One thing we can say is that out of 100,000+ men in prison, very few\nhave committed to live a life of change, and by doing so we conquered the old\nus. Pearl S. Black once said, \u201cNone who have always been free can understand\nthe terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.\u201d\nWe want to have that freedom, and we have hope on our side to be the driving\nforce to help us achieve our freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devonte\nB. (a.k.a. \u201cBaby Mackerel\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we started off our\nTuesday like we do every class by praying in with a great prayer from one of\nour PEP brothers. This was as followed by Daryl O. saying the word of the day.\nWe spoke about our upcoming event and graduation. We also watched a movie\ncalled The Best Of Enemies<\/em>, which is\nbased on a true story. But before we got started, David F. spoke to us about\nthe movie and how some of us have dealt with racism at some point in our lives.\nHe also gave us some words of encouragement. They showed a very encouraging\nmovie about unity and how racism affects our community. It reminded us of the\n10 Driving Values, especially having a \u201cFresh-Start Outlook\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, no matter how we were\nraised or the mistakes we\u2019ve made, people can change. We are proud of Legendary\n\u201919 and the changes we have made. We have come a long way in the program. We\nare excited for a second chance to start over and make memories with our family\nand loved ones. We can change, but it starts from within. Thanks to PEP, we\nhave been given the opportunity. Today was a good day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jose\nC. (a.k.a. \u201cWilliam Hong\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, July 17, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today was amazing. We shared\nthe day with Mr. Steve and David R. They were teaching Legendary \u201919 the Integrity Selling<\/em> course. Man, those\nguys were tough. They broke us down to build us up and did it all over again.\nEven though it seemed hard and they were really on us, it was all out of love,\nand we really appreciated it. Today we became better salesmen, and all the\ncredit is due to these two men. One thing that really stuck out to us today was\na piece of knowledge that David R. shared about keys to success: keep your\nfaith in God, make good decisions, make a strong commitment, have a good family\nsupport system and have a good mentor. We feel that was some very powerful\ninformation that we plan to apply to our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also did a few exercises\npracticing our selling skills, which was very interesting since for some of us,\nit was our first time ever trying to sell anything. To see someone who has been\nwhere we are now become so successful because of using these few keys to\nsuccess was inspiring. He gave me belief to understand that no matter how it\nmay look to society or others, the achievement of your goals for your life depends\non your actions and choices. No matter how hard it may get in life, you must\nstrive through the pain because there is light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan\nC. (a.k.a. \u201cLow-Carb Burger\u201d)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, July 18, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nwas a very good day, which started off by going to the computer lab to finish\nwork that needed to get done. After that, we had a Servant-Leader meeting where\nwe talked about how we needed to work on self-discipline. That has to be the\nhardest thing we try to change in our lives. When the training time was over, a\nbrother talked to us about how the real test will be when we are released from prison\nbecause right now we are in a controlled environment, but outside of prison we\ncannot control what will happen based on the situations we put ourselves in. When\nour Servant-Leader meeting was over, we all signed up for a job because when\nyou graduate, it is time to give back to the new class. Every single position\nin PEP was open, so we started interviewing for a position. By PEP allowing us\nto take action and start working before we are released, we were reminded that\nwe need to have responsibilities. Without responsibilities, we tend to get lazy,\nwhich many times is the reason why people end up coming back to prison. We also\nhave a chance to expand our view to do things that we have not done before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recently\nread a book on how to give back and the inexplicable joy you receive from doing\nit. Now that we will be graduating, we will be giving back and experiencing that\nsame joy that the leaders talk about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malik\nC. (a.k.a. \u201cVanilla Moon Pie\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cThe value of an idea lies in the using of it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Thomas A. Edison<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nbelieve this quote has changed the way I think in many ways, because it\u2019s\nstating that the ideas you come up with are of little value if you don\u2019t put\nthem into action. I have never put my ideas into action before, and then a week\nor so later I see that someone else is using my ideas, and the only reason it wasn\u2019t\nmy idea is because I never took action on it. That goes for life in general as\nwell: you can have the idea to go to school too, but people die before they\nactually take action on any of their ideas. Becoming rich is just an idea until\nwe get up and take action \u2013 the same thing for becoming successful. It starts\nwith an idea that grows up<\/em> to become\nan action. Thomas Edison became one of the most prolific inventors this world\nhas ever seen, all because he acted on his ideas. \u201cBig thoughts don\u2019t matter if\nthey are not turned into action.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nquote makes you think about your ideas a little differently and how we all\nshould live out our ideas. I think the reason that most of us don\u2019t act on our\nideas is the fear of failure, but that won\u2019t get us anywhere. Thomas Edison\nalso said, \u201cI have not failed. I\u2019ve just found 10,000 ways that won\u2019t work.\u201d So\nwhen we think about failure or rejection, we need to think about the bigger\npicture and ask ourselves instead, \u201cWhat if we don\u2019t fail and our ideas become\nreality?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas C. (a.k.a. \u201cMay Not 2\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, July 15, 2019 Today was a day of excitement and joy as we began practicing our walk for graduation. Just like most things in life, this was no easy task for us. We enjoyed the jokes; we enjoyed the success we had completing the practice run; but most importantly, we enjoyed the new us. […]<\/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":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essm19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813","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=9813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}