Evaristo Salas Jr.

Or you're going to be like Andy.

You're going to bump the system everywhere you go.

And you're going to sit there and say,

there's other things out there that this isn't real, this isn't life.

And you're going to maintain that hope.

And that's going to be the difference between how you, what affects you when you get out.

And so I took the view, you know, that Andy took, that hope is a good thing.

And that I was going to accept whatever came next.

Was it a struggle to have that kind of hope?

It was because, as in that movie, there's everything pushing against him.

Even the people that are closest to him.

You know, and it was the same thing with me.

There was family members that had given up hope a long time ago.

And even my fiance struggled with it.

And, you know, my fiance grew up in a Dutch world where they're logical and everything the way they look at it.

You know, yes, there's a spiritual side, but it's like, this is what we see, that's all there is.

And me, I could see

the cage, I could see the fences, but I could also see myself beyond it.

And I chose to focus on seeing myself beyond it.

The cycle begins.