I've often wondered, amid my past twenty years of disappointing imprisonment and the devastation to my life which it's caused, what might have made a difference? What could I have heard, or experienced, or been taught, but was not, which could have prevented me finding myself sitting in a Van Nuys courtroom in 1985 listening to an undeserved sentence of Life in California State Prison being handed down from the bench in my nightmare of a case.

Truth is, I still don't know.

But I have a few thoughts.

Set High Goals

Even if you don't know what you want to do with your life, never sell yourself short on what you can accomplish. You can do anything you set your mind to. Nothing is beyond your reach. And if, like me, your problems stem from your need to be accepted, know that friends and others will admire you more for your high accomplishments than for your rebelliousness or recklessness.

I'm in prison now because, without high goals, I'd gravitated to a life of getting high, for its own sake, with no regard for where it might get me in life. I could have been a lawyer and inherited my father's practice. Instead, I have only recriminations and regrets about what might have been.

Surround Yourself with Others with High Goals

Who you choose as peers is likely to be the most important choice you will ever make. Those peers will steer you, whether you intend to let them to or not, into or out of the bad situations which confront everyone in their lives. Poorly chosen friends, and you along with them, will opt for cutting corners, taking the easy way, the softer way, the wrong way. They won't respect or honor your heart as friends should, and believe me, life is too short to allow that.

Wisely chosen friends will share your distaste for self-destruction, and you will each reinforce the others' positive decisions and values. Some of those friends will see you into your old age, and you will grow to love, respect and appreciate them in a way you can not yet imagine.

Know Yourself

We are all nurtured, and injured, in the process of this strange, exciting thing called life. Whatever we were at birth, whatever we have become due to outside influences and our upbringing, whatever insecurities we may have, please realize how these joys and disappointments naturally contribute to who we are as individuals. Improvements can be made, as well as changes in lifestyle, location and goals. But who you are inside your skin is who you will be for a lifetime. You can avoid much pain by honestly and fearlessly discovering who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, dreams and aspirations, now rather than later. There are many old, miserable adults in the world, but there are fairly young, happy ones, too. The key is in becoming one of the latter. You have this awesome opportunity, much more so than any of us here in prison, while you are in your youth, your destiny yet unwritten. The difference, in most cases, lays in one deceptively simple lesson -- how well you know and love yourself.

Love yourself.

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I leave you now with my hope that you will find happiness and peace in this life.

Be well.