At 8 years old, I started my career by helping my father paint our home. I ended up falling into a five-gallon bucket of paint. I was always an active child.

At 16, I tried to paint our home again without asking permission. I wanted to surprise my parents, and I got two sides of the house completed before my parents returned from work. I was so proud, I could hardly wait to hear their praises and the joy in their voices. But when I heard, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" I quickly learned that masking the windows and covering the concrete is an important step...BEFORE you begin to paint. So, I worked the whole summer to replace the windows and pour a new concrete slab.

Without that failure, I never would have learned the lessons that helped me be successful in my actual painting business, and future businesses to come. But just as things were getting really good in life, tragedy hit our family. My wife left, and my children suffered.

What I did to end up in prison is horrific. I threw away my future, my goals, my plans. But I'm reminded of the childhood painting incident, and reminded that my past failures don't make me who I am. My failures don't, and never will, define me. Today, I must move forward and learn from my mistakes.

My past identity was wrapped up in financial successes, the physical attractiveness of my wife, and materialistic things. But when all of that comes crashing down, you are left with nothing. A lot of people don't believe in God, but through the depths of my pain and suffering, I find that I wouldn't be here today without the steady hand of God being there to catch me when I fall.

I'm now incarcerated, and my living environment is vastly different than what it used to be. But my goals and my focus in life are also very different. I want to be the man God created me to be. I want to help others and make a difference. While I may be in the darkest valley, I'm starting to climb the mountain. I hope to meet others, through this pen pal site, and climb the proverbial mountain with them. I want to lift them up along whatever painful paths they might be on. I hope to make new friendships, learn about other peoples' lives, and share my life stories with them through letters and messages. I want to be a man that others will be proud to say they are friends with -- a man who isn't solely judged on the mistakes he made. I pray for mercy.