Finding a job, while trying to find himself
“You see where you found me. I’m here at a basketball court, shooting hoops, listening to music. In the past, I probably would have been at a friend’s house, figuring out how I’m going to make my next buck. Or I would have been somewhere smoking weed with my friends, trying to figure out where the chicks are for tonight.
“But now I know they can strip that freedom from me at any time. Now, whenever I get pulled over by cops, it’s no longer, ‘Hey, put your hands up.’ It’s automatically weapons drawn, because I’m a felon. So all the decisions I make are based upon that.
“Now when my friend hits me up and asks if I want to go to a bar, I’m like, ‘I’m cool. I’m going to be at the house.’ Now when my friend asks, ‘Hey, bro, you want to make some money?’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m cool. I got a job.’
“A lot of that is hard to break because of the connection you have with these people. Since the playground, I’ve been with these guys. So for them, it’s like I’m turning my back on them. But I’m trying to look out for me.
“They may not understand that. But it’s because they’ve never been put in the position I was in. They didn’t get everything stripped from them in 2.5 seconds. And it’s hard to come back from that.
“Right now, I’m unemployed. If you have a theft on your record, it’s especially hard. They don’t know if they can put trust in you. That’s totally understandable. I can’t be mad at that. I mean, I put myself in that position.
“Even though it’s been hard for me to find a job, I’ve been blessed to have people in my life who are not constantly saying, ‘You need to find a job. You need to find a job.’ Instead, I have people telling me, ‘You need to find what you love, and do that. You need to find what you want to do in this life, and you need to do that. You need to find your niche, whatever that is, and follow it.’
“Right now, as a 24-year-old, I’m still trying to find myself. Trying to find where I can fit in as a productive member of society.”
— Sergio Yepez
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