Looking in the mirror, I see a 39-year-old extrovert. My name is Dominick Jerome Porter, and today, I am a Free Man. I wasn’t always that way.
I was a premature baby, who struggled and required extra time and care in the hospital when I was born. That level of extra care continued once my single parent mother was able to take me home. I had extensive speech therapy, and although I benefited from therapy, it was discovered that I also had issues with cognitive development, and difficulties with reading and writing. I was assigned to Special Education, and for most of my school years I rode the short yellow bus to school.
I received extra attention from my teachers, but unfortunately I also received unwanted extra attention from my schoolmates. For years I was teased and bullied, which led to an overwhelming feeling of frustration and embarrassment. I became withdrawn and a loner, and very quiet, relying upon my sense of sight to navigate the world around me in attempt to make sense of it all. I was passed from grade to grade, despite my inability to read or write haunting me. Increasingly, presumably, engaged, though really free falling.
In 2007, I found myself in County Jail, after being arrested and charged with First Degree Murder. I asked a cellmate to help me spell the word “comfortable,” and he said, “No, sound it out.” I put forth an effort; however, I failed because I was not correctly pronouncing the word. I claimed a small victory, in having properly found, with the use of the dictionary, how to spell what I couldn’t pronounce. I began to use that as the foundation of my learning. If I could figure out a few of the letters, I would look, and look, until I found the correct spelling of the word I was trying to use. Writing a letter could take weeks for me, but at least now I had a strategy.
I would write down the word that I had found, and armed with a brief definition, each word became a bullet point. I soon had over 130 bullet points! I painstakingly carried out the work of finding each word I wanted to use, making sure that it was spelled correctly. As my process developed with my bullet points, I began numbering each bullet point. If the sentence was the same subject it received the same number, and if it wasn’t, I assigned a different number to it. I then had to figure out the structure of the sentence I was trying to write, and decide upon which order the words should be in, and which should come first. After reading the final letter I’d written over and over again to make sure that it made sense, I would then send it out. This process could take months to complete. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
Over the years, I began to apply myself and get out of my comfort zone, by signing up for self-help and peer-to-peer support classes. I was eventually assigned to Adult Basic Education, prison speak for “High School.” I became convinced that I could accomplish anything, if I just worked hard and stayed consistent. I owe a special thanks to the countless individuals who showed me compassion by helping and inspiring me to keep striving. On February 27, 2023, after 9 long years on the perilous edge of the education wilderness, without a compass, I earned my G.E.D., and today, in 2025, I have accumulated over 20 units of college coursework as I pursue my A.A. in Psychology.
Although I am currently housed in a gated community “prison,” and serving a sentence of 25 years to life, I no longer have the shackles on my mind that I once had. As I now look in the mirror, I recognize that once lost version of me, who now is quite found. I am a Free Man . I now see my North Star. Thank you literacy.
Dominick Jerome Porter (G-59913)
