“I guess you could say I’m a disconnected kind of person. I mean, I like getting out and about, but I like my privacy as well. It’s like being an extrovert and introvert at the same time. I think there are other people in the world like that. You kind of just mind your own business, stay to yourself, and not really get into any drama.

“Some of that has to do with how crazy things are these days. You don’t want to fly. You don’t want to go to school. You don’t want to go to church. You worry about gunmen. You worry about this. You worry about that.

“You see so much of it on TV and social media. It’s one of the reasons I’m not really on Facebook anymore. There’s just too much, you know?

“I think technology is a gift and a curse. It’s supposed to bring people together, but it really doesn’t. With all these gadgets and interactive devices, it’s probably the best time to be alive right now. Yet you sometimes feel alone in the world.”

— Ashley Parris

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“I have sickle cell disease. I’ve had it my whole life. My earliest crisis was when I was 9 or 10. My red blood cells aren’t shaped circular. They’re shaped like a sickle. When they get clogged up in certain spots, it causes major pain.

“I’ve been in the hospital for it way too many times in my life. I was just there a month or so ago. I’m in the hospital so much, I don’t really have a social life. It’s pretty much gone. Dating a woman, when you’re always in the hospital, that’s not very attractive. So I’m alone a lot. Actually, I’ve always been kind of a loner.

“The fact that I’m always away from other people, off on my own, I notice stuff that a lot of people don’t notice. I’ve learned to see things that other people don’t see. There’s a lot of stuff out there. But when you’re alone all the time, who do you tell it to?”

— Preston Peterson

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“I’m not a violent person. It was just a bad situation that I misinterpreted. My anxiety level was so high it was unreal. I wasn’t sleeping. I had heart palpitations. I felt scared all the time. So when the situation arose I just reacted. It was fight or flight, and I took fight.

“I spent 20 years in the joint. It’s so lonely. You’re just surrounded by strangers, and every one of them is a wolf looking for something. You’ve just got to deal with it every day, but it colors your perception for the rest of your life.

“I’ve been out eight years now. As you get older, you learn to care less and less about things that used to get you so agitated. Like, I’m not going to see that guy again. Who cares what he thinks of me. You leave all that foolish stuff behind.

“Obviously, you’re changed because of everything that’s happened. But you learn to accept who you are now, and you just move on with life. I don’t even care anymore how old I am. I just know I’m going to get older. And every day I get older is just like one more day that I never expected to live. I’m just living in the here and now.”

— Mike, 57

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The post Prison wolves, loneliness life-changing experience appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“He had been in the service, World War II, and hadn’t been out all that long. I was still in high school with two years left when we met at a dance and started dating. After I finished high school, we were married for a little better than 65 years.

“I always felt that we had this connection. I was raised on a farm and worked hard, and he grew up with that same type of background. I think we had a good marriage. Not perfect. None of them are. But it was a good marriage.

“He was sick about two years before he passed away. He went into rehab and we thought he would be coming home, but that didn’t work out. He’s been gone almost 15 months. It’s very hard. Very difficult.

“He wasn’t a house guy. He wasn’t inside much, except in the wintertime when the weather was bad. Otherwise, he was always out here working on something. Even now I find myself wanting to tell him something and think, oh, I’ll wait until he comes back in the house. That’s the biggest challenge, the loneliness and the quiet. The house is awful quiet now.”

— Evelyn Wotipka

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