Shaka Senghor

Which are different things, which is that internal journey that I was able to go on.

Well, I was really lucky.

I think that there are spaces in the world where if you inhabit them,

You may be lucky, right?

So if you live in a certain area code, that can be a matter of luck.

If you're born with the genetics of LeBron James, there's a physical luck there, right?

That you can't script that.

My luck that I was actually literate in an environment where the average literacy rate is third grade.

And so I was able to read stories of other people who had triumphed over hardship.

I was able to read fiction.

I was able to read autobiographies and philosophy.

And so those things just kept my mind moving forward.

And what I've come to understand about being stuck, whether it's being imprisoned in your own mind, whether it's suicidal ideation, whether it's depression,

is what happens is your mind can't take another step.

And so what reading did for me was that it allowed me to just keep my mind moving forward as I was fighting to really unlock myself from this in prison way of being.

Wow.

It's such a great question.

And one of the things about shame, I actually write, there's a chapter I write about this feeling, right?

And actually it came from my work out here in society, working the regular job like most people are doing.

And I remember I had this moment where a project was handed to me.