40 to Life

Welcome back to this person I met. My name is Kayla, and the voice you just heard is Johnny walker. He's the community engagement specialist from A Brighter Way, an organization serving formerly incarcerated people, assisting them in the tedious process of reentering society. Johnny and I sat down in the downtown library on a cold february afternoon, where he generously shared his story and new life after not mere years, but decades of incarceration. Johnny, like many of us, grew up surrounded by a large community of family and friends, the most important to him being his mother. Despite her passing, her love still stays with him, a reminder that love knows no bounds even in death. In this episode, Johnny shares his battle with trauma and his emergence on the other side. Taking it one day at a time, Johnny says, is the most important step to healing and finding yourself again, no matter how impossible it may feel.