A man sentenced to 15 years in prison at 28 for drug dealing reflects on how chasing status through expensive clothes pushed him toward crime. Now 44, he calls the sentence deserved and says it reshaped his life into something he built from inside.
I got a 15-year prison sentence. I fell into this trap of wanting to be the man and worry about what everybody thought. All I really cared about was how do I look and how many different types of shirts and custom suits can I buy. And long story short, I could not afford the lifestyle, was way in over my head. So I started to sell drugs because I was around it all the time and I saw everybody doing it. Let me tell you something, career path, there's, there's always an end when it comes to doing illegal stuff, right? And I found that out the hard way because you come into this mindset that you're going to be invincible and no, that can't ever happen to me. And it's always going to happen to you. So I got a 15-year prison sentence when I was 28. I'm 44 right now. I got what I needed. I got what I deserved. And I— what happened to me shaped my life. I wouldn't be sitting here with you if that didn't happen.
