Fighting Just to Dream

“The sentimentalist in me was taught early on that dreams were impractical and led to nothing but disappointment; just like that time my grandmother promised me Nike Air Max’s for Christmas, but then sent me something different. Who wants to experience the high of a grandiose fantasy, only to be disillusioned shortly after? That would never be me!”

--Errol R. Reid

The dream crashes to the reality of incarceration and a struggle for survival in a system that helps perpetuate recidivism, Reid soon discovers. Family, friends, and other relationships are slipping away as he counts down to his release and he finds himself in a desperate struggle to hold on to these relationships as well as to his sanity. Survival is a must in a place where he watches dreams die and men getting caught in a never-ending vicious cycle.

Prison is a vast underworld governed by a convict culture centered upon survival at all costs. Broken hearts, loneliness, regret, and abandonment blanket every corner of every room. Desolation is more oppressive than the unrelenting desert sun outside. Prison takes lives; but it also saves them. Buried deep inside the heavily guarded walls, blessings can be found by those who boldly dream and seek them. As vacillating relationships fade to memories, desperation crumbles Reid to shattered pieces. Devoid of resources, he works to cultivate an unconditional self-love to mend himself whole, perhaps for the first time ever.

Fighting Just to Dream is an insider’s view of disgrace, despondency, steadfast determination, purpose, and courage, all from the barbed-wire hell that is prison.