3 Years Ago Today I Became a Free Man

The FBI arrested me on October 1st, 2013.

I was charged with one count of mail fraud and pleaded guilty.

All told, I spent 2047 days under some form of imprisonment.

This is the equivalent of:

• 176,860,800 seconds
• 2,947,680 minutes
• 49,128 hours
• 292 weeks and 3 days
• 5 years, 7 months, 9 days
• 67 months, 9 days

On this day, May 9th, 2019, I became a free man. I was done with pre-trial supervision, prison, the halfway house, and supervised release.

I never understood the power, beauty, and complexity of freedom until I lost it.

You can’t truly understand something until you’ve experienced its opposite.

Freedom is complex. It’s deep. It goes beyond being confined to a perimeter. True freedom is found within, true freedom is internal, and the choices I make either contract or expand that freedom.

Every day there are hundreds of choices to be made. Some of them big, some of them small. Regardless of their size, bringing awareness to every choice is the key to an extraordinary life, to painting whatever I want to paint.

This blows me away. It makes me feel small and it makes me feel infinite. This is the power of choice.

The more I choose to experience in life, the braver choices I make, the more opportunities and possibilities I create.

Jerzy Gregorek said,

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”

I used to think the opposite. I was wrong. I know what happens when I face fear. It’s incredible. Every single time.

Without fail.

My time, energy, and attention are all limited. They are nonrenewable.

Once they are gone, they’re gone forever. I have the power to choose how to utilize what can never be replenished.

Choices I took for granted now carry a meaning I will never again sacrifice.