By Ricardo Tello – May 2025
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible” – Frank Zappa
I never thought I would be saying this but – as I sat in my orange jumpsuit, shackled inside the steel-reinforced, tin-can van, driving away from the jail I knew I would never see again – I felt like I was leaving home. During my life I have lived in many places, never staying in one place for more than a couple of years. I was the new kid in a new school at least a dozen times. And although you reach a point where you become very comfortable and easily adapt to changes, the feeling of walking into the unknown and having to start over never
changes. As I thought of a topic to write about, I pondered over the concept of moving, and
the effects it has on our minds. The natural fear and resistance we have as human beings to
embrace change and how taking that step, which can usually benefit us in the long run, is so
hard to take. Many times, we become so comfortable with familiar discomfort that we are
unwilling to try new things. Most often, it’s our fear of rejection, fear of failure or simply a lack
of courage that overwhelms us.
At the end of April, I experienced the biggest life changing event in the past two years
of my incarceration. I was transferred from the small county jail, in Kankakee, IL, where I
began my journey, into a big Federal facility in downtown Chicago – the Metropolitan
Correctional Center (MCC). The MCC is a well-known staple of the US Federal System as it
has, during its time, housed some of the most notorious criminals to have gone through the
system. The facility houses close to seven-hundred inmates, separated into seven two-tier
general population decks, a female floor and the SHU (Special Housing Unit). Unlike small
jails, and like most Federal institutions, the MCC has a library, chapel, gym, and due to its
unique location within the city, it has a rooftop recreation area. The food is better, the trip to
the courthouse is closer and there are windows to look outside.
One thing we often don’t understand is that change always happens for a reason. The
opportunities that are presented to us are doors that the universe wants us to open into the
unknown. Although we are usually excited about nice shiny new things, our fears and
anxieties immediately kick in and begin to fill our minds with the negative thoughts of what
can happen or could happen. It’s survival mode. Our mind playing tricks on us, the same mind
that is so powerful it has the ability to stop us from living our best life, and the same mind that
has the potential to make us the most successful version of ourselves. Starting something
new, going out of our norm or changing our environment, as in my case, is hard. Agreed! But
it is also these changes that help us grow and teach us more. The only way to learn is by
embracing change. By being open to change, we are open to the world of opportunities that
life has to offer us. Being in jail sucks! But that does not mean there isn’t something to learn,
it is our ability to adapt to the changing conditions, fights, lockdowns, overstimulated CO’s, and inmates yelling, that gives us the experience to become better. I recently read that “to live fully is to awaken to this reality now,” and it really hit me. Moving, changing and evolving is part of our growth and the only way to continue our path to success is to embrace these changes. Moving from place to place is only a figurative thought but our mind has to be open to accept and continue on our path to success.