Note: I have watched the Netflix series approximately 1 and 1/2 times. I have not read the book.
Here are some random reflections from Piper.
Too many inmates wish that they could take it back. I don't have regrets anymore, or hold grudges, or pretend that I'm innocent. I'm a criminal because I made the wrong choices. I'm a criminal because I loved someone who brought out a different side of me; the adventurous side.
Love didn't send me to prison. I truly believe that it was bound to happen. I mean, it's me.
Love is a powerful force, nonetheless. In fact, it's so powerful that it can shape your entire future. But things change. I thought that my life was over after I was incarcerated, but I now realize that it's only just begun. I'm me. I'm who I was meant to be and I'm content with that.
Prison life is not miserable, nor does it consist of you moping around all day, and you can't, because you have things to do. Inmates aren't exceedingly busy or anything, but they do have to live their lives. And as much as some people would disagree, prison life is life. I know that now. Because you feel your heart beating in your chest and you feel cool breath on your face, and you devour every meal because you're hungry like any real human would be because you're alive. You're just temporarily living a little bit differently.
I don't recommend prison. Prison was my way of learning, and I recommend learning. I recommend coming to terms with what you've done and who you are. If you deserve to be in prison, be in prison, and realize that it doesn't matter who named you or who turned you in because you're the one who got yourself into that mess.
And that prison feeling, that feeling that you want to kill yourself every morning, doesn't go away. It doesn't get better and it doesn't ever leave you. No matter how much you've assimilated prison, or the color orange, or the atmosphere, or lesbians or how living there can either turn you into a total dick or a martyr or an unexpected heroine, you still end up feeling like you shouldn't be there. The hardest part is that you should be there, and you have to face that head on. Sometimes you wanna feel like shit, and that's okay. But no one wants to feel like shit all the time. And when you have people who care about you, it's pretty hard to.