Pellissippi State student: Education key to turning life around

By Kathy Byrd

Some students view school as a prison, and they dream of the day they are set free into the “real world.”

Matt Buentiempo could set them straight.

Buentiempo knows firsthand the stark contrast between the classroom and the jail cell. The 24-year-old is currently enrolled in classes at the Blount County Center—a year after completing a two-year sentence in Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.

Buentiempo plans to major in business while at Pellissippi State and then pursue a degree in counseling at the University of Tennessee (UT) focusing on drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Eventually he would like to rise to a management position, coordinating the work of counselors.

Enrolling in college may not seem like a logical step to coming off “doing time,” but for Buentiempo the choice was clear-cut.

“Education is the most valuable thing to me,” he said. “Every day I try to learn more and better myself.”
Buentiempo’s life is now moving in a positive direction, but he admits that before his prison term his attitude and actions were less than admirable. He was, he confesses, “the king of excess.”

“I did everything to the utmost,” he said. “I traveled. I promoted parties—raves. I got people together.” His hedonistic lifestyle involved the frequent use of illegal substances, a habit Buentiempo picked up as early as age 11 when he began drinking and smoking marijuana.

“And from there it went to acid, ecstasy, cocaine, meth and heroin,” he said. But in 2001, Buentiempo’s world of pleasure came crashing down. He broke his back in a four-story fall while washing windows, was shot accidentally, grieved with the rest of the nation over September 11, lost a good friend to suicide—and received an eight-year sentence for selling drugs.

The “seclusion and solitude” of the maximum security prison made the 21-year-old reflect on his life.

“At first, I thought things couldn’t get any worse,” he said, “and I didn’t really care if I lived or died.”

But with plenty of time on his hands, Buentiempo started doing a lot of reading. “I could have all the books I wanted, so I would just ask my mom to send them to me.”

He read books on psychology, enlightenment, yoga, and religion of all kinds, including Zen Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism.

“I read the Bible through a few times, and I read the cabala,” he said.

Gradually his view of himself and his outlook on life began to change.

“My experience taught me that really there’s a lot more to life than what I can get out of it for myself,” Buentiempo said. “Fast money, drugs, trying to pleasure myself—that’s not what’s important.”

Buentiempo’s love for the arts also helped him survive the loneliness of prison.

“Art and music kept me going, those and reading and writing,” he said. “They were the only things that kept my mind off the negative environment I was in. I kept a journal, mostly of affirmations to myself, because I didn’t really have anyone to talk to.”

Through a four-month stint in a prison “boot camp” Buentiempo’s time was shortened to two years, and he will be on probation for another four years.

Immediately after his release, he worked a couple of manual labor jobs, and then he was hired as a receptionist at Cornerstone of Recovery, a drug rehabilitation center, where he is now training to become a counselor.

“They were nice enough to hire me,” Buentiempo said. “You know, it’s hard to get a job when you have a record. You have to make a decision whether or not to lie about it on the application. I’m honest about it.”

In choosing Pellissippi State, Buentiempo followed the advice of his older sister, Holly, who graduated from the community college before moving on to UT.

“She said it was a good place to come,” Buentiempo said. “It’s a good school at a good price, and the credits transfer easily to a lot of other colleges.”

In addition to painting and sculpting, Buentiempo produces music at home and has served as a disc jockey at parties and wedding receptions.

Although job and hobbies get part of his time and energy, education takes center stage in his life right now.

“It’s essential for me to get an education,” he said simply.

He knows he will need a master’s degree to reach his goal, but with a positive outlook born of the solitude of the prison cell and nurtured by the opportunity in the classroom, he expects to achieve it.

Now, when he looks back on his old life, it’s not with longing but with sadness and a sense of grace: “I saw so many of my friends die, get killed, go to jail. I feel blessed that I’m not in that situation anymore.”

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Community Relations Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

For past issues, visit the Inside Pellissippi Archive.