Bon Air- Week 1

Going to the prison felt like going to move in day again. I felt like the nervous, naive freshman I was 6 weeks ago. Walking in I was shaking, despite the fact that I was cracking jokes to cover my paranoia. After finally getting our badges and going into the room, I looked around to see the guys already sitting there, looking attentive and ready for us to start our meeting. We sat down and already the guys had beaming smiles. I was immediately more calm and excited to get to know the other guys.

For our opening activity, we introduced ourselves and said where we were from. Already the guys in our group were eager to talk, sharing stories about themselves and cracking jokes. I liked seeing that they were all comfortable with one another.

After the activity and getting to know everyone, I was paired up by Professor Dolson with my partner ( I believe his name was Shandrant). Together we shared our poems we had written and I already began to lean a lot about my partner. How he had lost friends due to gang violence. How he had never really had home cooked meals. How he had lived through several shootings in his own neighborhood. I was skeptical we wouldn’t be able to connect since we were so different. Our next prompt was to share a story of a time where we scared. My partner seemed hesitant to tell his story, insisting that I go first. After we shared both our stories, conversation seemed to come more so from me then him, however he was very curious to ask about college. He asked me questions about college and what life is like in Virginia (since he knew I was from NY). We did have our occasional awkward pauses or he would something like “I don’t want to be locked up here” and “you don’t know what it’s like” but I could tell he was a funny guy and I wanted to learn more about that side of him.

My goal for next time is to get my partner to really open up to me in the sense that we share more stories and our conversation flows naturally. I really want to take advantage of our time together and i’m hoping we form a good relationship.