Awareness and Authenticity

Awareness

As human beings, sometimes we fall off track. If we're living according to the principles of the Straight-A Guide, we can recalibrate. That means we stop perpetuating the problem and start working toward the solution.

Nurse Tina is a great example of someone who understood the importance of getting back on track.

Tina told me that, as a child, she lived in Southern New Jersey, not even knowing that she was poor. Her grandmother played a pivotal role in her life. As a teenager, she moved into an area she described as a ghetto of Trenton. Tina's grandmother reared her in the Christian faith, emphasizing the importance of education. With that guidance, Tina could avoid complications derailing opportunities for many other people who spent their formative years in poverty.

Tina attended a Bible college and earned an undergraduate degree. She began earning a living in her chosen career. Since her grandmother had played such a pivotal role in her life, Tina wanted to comfort her and provide the best quality of life for her grandmother's end-of-life experience. Aware of what it would take to reach her highest potential as a caregiver, Tina made a commitment. She enrolled in nursing school.

Being Authentic

To be authentic, a person has to:

• Define success
• Develop an awareness that would help create a plan
• Put priorities in place
• Execute the plan

By applying herself, Tina worked through courses that included microbiology, anatomy and physiology, and other coursework that would prepare her to pass exams necessary to work as a board-certified registered nurse. With those credentials, Tina could do more than comfort patients in need. As a licensed healthcare provider, she could also treat them within her scope of nursing practice.

Tina became a role model for her five children and anyone wanting to see a model of excellence. To succeed, she had to stay aware of opportunities and be authentic in her commitment.

The U-Shaped Curve

As people go through the prison system, perspectives change. Like Tina, anyone who faces a criminal charge instantly becomes a "justice-impacted" person. That means the person should become aware of opportunities to seize or create. When a person shows commitment to learning, growing, and making things right, others become aware of the individual's character and integrity.

Knowing that in time, I wanted to advocate for reforms that would improve outcomes for all stakeholders in the prison system, I began reading. I had to become more aware of how the system operated to change the system. I wanted to learn more about different theories. One of those theories used the metaphor of the U-Shaped curve.

Regardless of sentence length, or phase, the theory held people's adjustment would follow through three phases that would trace the pattern of a U:

• First Phase: At the top of the U, when authorities first bring people into the system, they experience a high degree of separation from family, friends, and everything they take for granted.
• Second Phase: At the bottom of the U, the middle phase, they develop routines and grow more accustomed to the prison experience. By the time a person gets to the mid-way point of the sentence, the person knows prison well.
• Third Phase: On the upside of the U, as release dates get closer and they know they're getting back to the broader community, the anxiety comes back. They wonder how they will adjust.

Learning from Malcolm X

In the example of Malcolm X, we learn the importance of being aware of opportunities. If we don't open our eyes, we cannot see. But if we open our eyes, we may see pathways that will take us from where we are today to all we want to experience. Leaders leave us clues on how they prepare for success. We must choose whether we want to be authentic in that pursuit.

Regardless of what bad decisions we may have made in the past, at any time, we can begin making good decisions. Yet we must always anticipate that people will question our authenticity. Therefore, we must always keep our heads in the game, knowing the opportunity costs that accompany every decision we make.