Patience is key to achieving even the most impossible of things. It strengthens your endurance, betters your stance, and enables you to curate more effective strategies. It helps you to reach where you want to be in life. Patience is not easy to undergo either. It asks for sacrifice, steadfastness, and an immense amount of resilience. Ricky Kidd mastered the art of patience when he was wrongfully incarcerated for a double homicide.
There wasn’t a moment when Ricky was not on his toes, working fervently for his liberation against a felony he did not commit. As time progressed, Ricky continued to fight the flawed system that put him behind bars. He understood that every step forward would be met with numerous challenges. It took him and his lawyers from the Midwest Innocence Project 14 years and a total of 11 losses to ultimately win an appeal.
During his time in captivity, Ricky inaugurated a business module under the name of ‘Humble Standards.’ While working with an artist and acquiring outside help, this greeting card company-matched artwork with expressions. However, not much was achieved with this venture with him being locked in handcuffs. Despite his own passion, those around Ricky at the time did not hold the same vigor as he did.
While Humble Standards sank, I Am Resilience grew when he was exonerated. Many advised Ricky against the idea of this venture, trying to push him to choose a safe way out. But his vision was to create a platform and channel his prison experience. He took charge of his fate after being released in 2019. To demolish every obstructive comment that came his way, Ricky created a curriculum and program to build and train individuals suffering at the hands of the unjust system.
Within 3 years, Ricky’s vision had slowly materialized. He practiced his ideas, learned to take control, and advised others to do the same. The patronizing comments of people around Ricky did not once falter him. He testified for proper compensation in front of Missouri lawmakers, became a part of the Jackson County DA Office Advisory Board, and spoke from the heart to inspire people. Ricky returned home after 23 years and has been relentlessly moving forward.
He is utilizing his life as a person who did not recoil in the face of another setback. After writing innumerable letters, the Midwest Innocent Project finally agreed to take Ricky’s case. The results bore the fruitful response of him earning his freedom. Passion turned into caring for others, and Ricky decided to not waste any more time and worked to reform the negatives of the judicial system.
Now, instilling resilience, Ricky is stepping forth from the black cloud that hovered over him for 23 years. His plan is to become a great motivator, an empathetic figure, and a person who reinstates hope within the hopeless. In the words of Robert Frost, Ricky has too much to give and “miles to go before” he sleeps.
