Leaving Prison

The path to freedom? (Photo credit: Try Jimmy)

When people leave prison, one of three things often happens:

1- The prisoner is so relieved to have his freedom that he makes absolutely certain that he never has to go back.

2- The prisoner goes back to her old habits and gets locked up again.

3- The prisoner enters the world to find that he lacks the social standing, community, and support system he had in prison.  Since life as an ex-con sucks for him, he intentionally gets himself sent back.

This kind of thing doesn’t just happen with literal prisons.  For instance, certain jobs may feel like a prison and sometimes people quit.  After that, they may be grateful for their freedom or they may try to return; they may even end up returning in spite of their wishes not to.

For this week’s challenge, think of a time when you (or someone else) departed from a place or situation that was like a prison.  However, try to avoid the simple story of “I was so grateful for my freedom and I never went back.”  Instead, try to write about something that parallels #2 or #3 from the list above.

Compose and publish your response to this prompt on your own blog.  Be sure to include a link to this post so that a pingback will appear here, thereby allowing other participants to discover your work.  Please be patient if your pingback does not appear immediately; I am not at my computer 24/7 and I have to approve all pingbacks.  For this reason, using the bcandelabra tag may be advisable.