School Experiance

The only journey is the journey within.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

When I think back on my high school experiences, the most memorable and most eye opening would be my senior year Economics class.  During one of our studies, our professor was trying to explain what our taxes pay for and one of them happed to be an incarceration facility.  To our surprise, our professor booked an appointment for us to visit.  As we all gathered around closely monitoring the primates in the cells, our professor took the time to explain how we help feed these murders, robbers, rapist and even death row inmates.  I was horrified.  These criminal have everything.  They have a huge gym to work out in, multiple television sets and even a library.  I kept asking myself why anybody would want to be in here.  My question was short lived when my professor explained that these 10x10 cellblocks is more than what most of those criminals have outside of those walls.

As we toured the facility, all I could think about was my freedom.  I was so happy because I knew I would never be in here.  I love my life too much to spend it in a 10x10 cell wall.  The ride home was very quiet.  Nobody spoke nor asked any questions.  I think we were all shocked and bewildered by our encounter.  Jail is most definitely not a place to be in.  Sometimes, when I get angry, I think about the time I visited the jail that dreary October day.  Nothing is worth an angry thought after visiting a place like that.  I think our professor taught us more than just money that day, he also opened the eyes to a couple of off track students in our class.  In my class were three students who were in the brink of expulsion from the school. After our class trip to the facility, those students made such a huge turn around.  Two of them graduated with A-B honor roll and the other graduated and became a police officer.  To this day, he still serves his community proudly. As for me, I live happily in Florida with my cat and my freedom.  If I would see my Economics professor again, I would thank him.  Some people need to visually see something traumatic, to mentally grow from it.  Sometimes, words are not enough.