Many times, I left the prison thinking, 'I'm smart. I can make it. I won't get caught up again.' But you get off downtown Skid Row, and you're a target for all of the environmental harms in that area. The pain and trauma in that area is so thick, you can almost reach your hand out and touch it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the challenges of recovery and the impact of environment on personal growth.
Susan Burton's quote illustrates the struggle of overcoming past hardships while highlighting how one's environment can influence their ability to break free from cycles of trauma and despair. She emphasizes that even with the ambition to succeed, the surrounding influences of pain and trauma can become overwhelming and hinder progress.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the importance of community support in recovery programs.
People are released from prison so unprepared. They give you $200. We call it gate money. And you have to pay for a bus ticket back to L.A. You get off the Greyhound bus, downtown Skid Row, and you're supposed to make a life from that.
We're willing to spend countless dollars putting people who need help in cages, and then when they get out we say you can't have a job, and you can't have housing, and because you don't have either, we're going to take your kids, too.
I knew hundreds and hundreds of women like me, who had traveled in and out of prison in a revolving door. They needed support and help just like I had received. And it could make a difference, just like it had made a difference in my life. I wanted to see them come back to the community and have a chance at a different life, too.
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it's not like that. It happens overnight.
Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls - family, health, friends, integrity - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.
So much pressure in this life of mine, I cry at times, I once contemplated suicide and woulda tried, but when I held that nine, all I could see was my mama's eyes, no one knows my struggle, they only see the trouble, not knowing it's hard to carry on when no one loves you.
When you're under a microscope from an early age, you realize that people aren't always going to like you. And that's OK. And you're going to fail publicly, and that's OK, too.
Loss is the great unifier, the terrible club to which we all eventually belong.
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