I’m feeling really down today. So I’m now enrolled on an access course in engineering , which I was really excited about yesterday, but now I have a horrible gut feeling my criminal records are going to hold me back. Like I’m going to do all that hard work for nothing. I’ve been in a hell of alot of trouble from when I was 12 years old up until a couple of months ago, I’m 25 now. When I was a kid it was a case of pretty much hanging around with a bad crowd, and me showing off, and generally not giving a shit about any consequences. As an adult, everything has been alcohol related. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have done it, and I shouldn’t have drunk if I know it makes me an arsehole. There’s a little voice in my head telling me why bother bettering yourself if people are always going to judge you on your past anyway. I could really do with a glass of wine right now, haven’t felt like this in 10 days, but its getting to me now.
Forget those people you’re sober for you not them. Past is the past, nothing we can do about it. Stay strong. Good luck
Can I offer the benefits of 25 years in the future?
I got in a lot of trouble as a kid and a young man, up to your age, roughly. I managed to get a degree in there, but I worried about a lot of the same things you do.
Sometimes it takes admitting what happened to a potential employer in order to move forward. Some people will want to give you that chance to prove yourself. Some blind luck is involved, too, honestly.
Flash forward 25 years. I’m a successful executive, clean from booze for 5 years, and in the midst of kicking a nasty porn habit. Your past is in the past. There’s a statute of limitations on how much it can haunt you.
Stick with it, and stick with us. You’ll be just fine.
Thanks, just one of those days I think, hopefully I’ll feel more positive tomorrow. Better not have that glass, it will only make me feel more shittier than I already do and plus I don’t want to wake up in a cell again. Cup of decaff tea for me. Fml lol
Yeah, that whole “waking up in a cell” thing sucks, doesn’t it? Probably the worst one was being stuck in a holding cell for 6 hours next to a woman on suicide watch who kept screaming the whole time. Apparently the main part of the jail was full, and they didn’t quite know where to put me. Finally gave me a mattress on a cell floor in general population to get me away from her so I could get some sleep.
Yh its horrible. We don’t have jail in England like you guys do though, no general population, you’re in a cell by yourself so if you’re next to a psycho you’re fucked lol 
Thanks though, you’ve cheered me up, nice to know someone else has been given a second chance and they’ve made a success out of it .
When was your last case?? That’s your starting point man. All you can do is go forward from there. Your record will clear up eventually. Just no new cases! All the rest is completly out of your control
Thanks for hanging in there! Glad to hear that you made the conscious decision not to have the wine. It will only make everything worse. And hey, it’s one bad day, tomorrow will be better as long aa you dont drink! But im not telling you anything you dont already know… And remember, everyone has a past! We can only learn from our mistakes, which sounds to me like youre already on the right path! Thanks for leading by example. Hang on tight! This too shall pass.
Jan 2015, so it should be spent by Jan next year. But I put my name into a search engine and some arsehole reporter had wrote about my hearing on the local news page. That one was only a minor offence as well. Oh well, nothing I can do about it I suppose. Hopefully there will be a employer out there decent enough to give me a second chance, if not, I’ll have to find a way to go self employed lol.
That sounds better. People love second chances man. If you could get to the interview and be honest with someone, that door might open. If it doesn’t then it wasn’t meant to be. On to the next.
Easy to say, I know. This is no joke. Just do your best
Hello @Chels2017. Your young,you can change anything you want,if you really want to. As far as what people says,who cares. Do the best you can for you,to your best ability and you have already succeeded. Let them take what they will from it, the only one you have to prove anything to is yourself. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing.