Marco Barete

Who Am I?

My name is Marco Barete born in Waukegan, raised in Highwood, IL by my mother and step dad. I got 2 older brothers and 2 younger. At a young age I loved going to school. My favorite classes were science and math. I always tried helping others, especially the people closest to me. Loyalty means a lot to me, faith helps me get through a lot. It helped me get through all my bids. Always think about the good and how it could’ve been worse. Some of us are never coming out.

My family is everything to me. Without them I don’t know where I’d be right now. My mother always been there for me. In the good and the bad times. Always tried leading me down the right path, telling me to stay in school and study to be a lawyer. To sending me money in jail when it got rough. I don’t think there is anyone else I trust more than my mother. That’s why she is number one in my book. [page 2]

I was into school growing up. So much that I remember one winter in the 90s it snowed so much they cancelled all classes. Yet I still made my older brother walk me to school. When we got there I seen all the lights were off, doors closed he told me “Tony I told you it was closed.” So we walked it back. Slowly I started making bad decisions. Started skipping class, etc. Next thing I know I got banned from high school for fighting and selling some weed.

You see my 2 older brothers got deported back to Mexico. So my OG help them out as much as she could. Always working. I started getting more involved with drugs and alcohol. First it was just weed then at 17 I started doing cocaine. After that my first case, then my house got raided, which led to my [IDOC number].

Through all this, I learned that I didn’t just make it hard on myself but on my family too. I used to think I’m locked up, I’m away from my family, but I never thought about it how my family seen it. [page 3] They out there without me also. We all make mistakes. The mistakes I’ve made I don’t think make me a bad person. It could only make me a smarter one by learning from my mistakes.

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