Editing User:Francisco Meyer (section)

= Francisco Meyer =

I spent eighteen months in prison when I was thirty-two years old. That's not the part I'm ashamed of—that was just the consequence. The part I'm ashamed of is what I did to get there. The people I hurt. The trust I broke.

I'm not going to tell you all the details. Some of them still aren't mine to share. But I will tell you this: I was the villain in my own story. Not a victim. Not misunderstood. I made choices I knew were wrong, and I made them anyway.

Prison gave me time. Too much time. I read. I thought. I wrote letters I never sent. Somewhere in those eighteen months, I started asking: Is there a path back? Can someone who's done real harm become someone different?

I've been out for twenty years now. I work with at-risk youth—kids who remind me of myself before everything went wrong. I've rebuilt some relationships. Others are gone forever. I've accepted that I'll never fully undo what I did.

But I've also learned that redemption isn't about erasing the past. It's about what you do with the present. Every day is a chance to be someone different than you were yesterday.

This wiki is for people who carry something heavy. Who've hurt people. Who wonder if they deserve another chance. The answer, I think, is yes—but you have to earn it. One day at a time.

''— [[User:Francisco_Meyer|Francisco Meyer]], still earning the second chance''