Journal Six Alayna

 Alayna Bowman

English 1109 at 1:30, Mon-Wed

21 October 2020

 

                                                                    Journal 6

            The story One and Done by Maurice Clarett provides many different takeaways. One main takeaway from the book is change. Clarett started off as a criminal, doing what he could to make money. An example of this is in chapter seventeen when he says, “ Hustling dope, hustling weed, hustling anything I could put my hands on just to flip a dollar” (Clarett 201). This was when we was pretty desperate for money and just sold drugs and robbed people a lot. He also thought that he would be playing football for the rest of his career. Now, Clarett runs an organization so people don’t make the same mistakes that he did. The streets are not easy to get away from but he did and he took the negative events from his life and turned them into something positive. 

Another thing to take away from this story is how powerful a positive mindset could be. When he was hustling, Clarett thought that was all that was left for him. He was at the lowest point of his life and was depressed. Nothing in his mind wanted to do anything to get out of that life. However, in prison his whole mindset changed. He was around people in prison that made him realize that’s not the life he wanted to live anymore. It would have been easy for him to get a hold of drugs and alcohol in prison and continue to use and follow his ways but, instead he took the harder path and kept a positive mindset. Because of this, he was able to make it out of prison with new knowledge and a new outlook on life. It is so hard to unlearn the ways of the streets but Clarett was persistent and now he is successful. 

The interview with Clarett and Bob Eckhart was very inspirational and helpful. It helped to connect points of the story that may have been unclear while reading. It was also nice to be able to ask the author questions and to get more knowledge on things that were not added into the book. My biggest takeaway from the interview was that your attitude toward things really effects how you live. Clarett went from not caring about himself to having a routine to follow everyday. It’s pretty eye opening to see and hear from somebody who totally turned their life around.

       

   This image helps give a better look into what his living conditions were like for four years.