"I tried to make money the honest way"

 

"I tried to make money the honest way as a kid. I tried shoveling snow. I tried a newspaper route, I stuck with it for a while but one day

I was collecting money from my route and these older kids robbed. me. there were three of them. they were 16 or 17.  I fought hard. I told them: 'I worked hard for this money.' but they held me  down and took it anyway. it was $27. And that made me feel so powerless. And I remembered that i knew someone with a knife. And I thought: ' Am going to steal that knife and deal with this firmly.' I found those boys at an arcade. Nobody got Killed. I hurt them. but I wouldn't say that I felt proud after stabbing them. but I felt like, they deserved what the got. I felt vindicated. Even today I have trouble sympathising with them. it's funny how that works. when someone wrongs us. we want the maximum amount of punishment. but when we do wrong, we want the maximum amount of understanding and forgiveness."

(Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York)
source: Humans of New York