07/30/2026
reedom means different things to different people.
For some, freedom is simply the ability to go where they want.
For me…
Freedom is waking up every day with the opportunity to build instead of destroy.
To encourage instead of discourage.
To pour into young people instead of watching them repeat the same cycles that so many of us were taught to normalize.
There was a time when I believed the labels.
The labels placed on me.
The labels I placed on myself.
The false narratives that said success looked one way… that manhood looked one way… that respect had to be earned one way.
Looking back, I realize I wasn’t free.
I was living inside beliefs I didn’t even know had become my prison.
That’s why days like this mean so much to me.
Standing in a park surrounded by families, children laughing, mentors encouraging, community leaders showing up, volunteers serving, and young people graduating from Beyond the Label…
I couldn’t help but pause and thank God.
Because this is what liberation looks like.
Not just freedom from a place…
But freedom from a mindset.
Freedom from believing you have to become what your environment expects you to become.
Freedom to imagine something greater.
Freedom to choose purpose over pain.
Freedom to build instead of break.
(This audio is from Taylor Paul , who I had the pleasure of meeting at Returning Citizens luncheon va_league_for_safer_streets and look forward to working with -Insha Allah. He does great work in the communities and also for kids on the systems we suffer from as a society and culture.)
