This doesn’t have to define you.
Eight months from now in August 2025, you can walk out of that facility and make a choice.
You can choose to be bitter and angry.
You can choose to blame me, the system, or officer Martinez.
Or you can choose to learn from this.
You can choose to understand that you were wrong.
You can choose to become a better person.
You can use this experience to develop empathy and humility.
You can choose to spend the rest of your life making sure no one else has to go through what could have happened.
I hope you make the right choice.
I really do because I don’t want to see you back here in 5 or 10 years facing even more serious charges.
I don’t want to read in the paper that you finally caused that accident or finally hurt someone.
I want to believe that you can change.
But that change has to start with accountability.
It has to start with accepting that what you did was wrong.
It has to start with understanding that this sentence is not about me being mean.
