Alan Brezovsky 38, grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in "Alphabet City." When he was a kid, his only role models were the local drug dealers, he says.

Brezovsky spent five and a half years in prison for drug dealing, and he was released in September 1999. He is about to graduate from the Greenwich House, a rehabilitation center for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.

"You know, I think what I did was wrong. You don't see the innocent victims," Brezovsky says of his days as dealer. "But a drug dealer will also become a victim of his own crime, because he doesn't see the future. He doesn't see what's gonna happen to him or herself."

Alan went to jail in February 1994. There, his transformation began.

CLICK to hear how Alan changed his outlook on life in prison (63 seconds).

Released from prison in September 1999, Brezovsky entered the Wildcat program to improve his chances of landing a job. His positive attitude and work habits earned him a permanent job as a maintenance worker for the Alliance for Downtown New York.

In the future, Brezovksy wants to pay back a student loan and save up enough money to leave New York and start over again somewhere else.

"My dream is just to live a normal life. I don't want to be rich, I don't want to be poor. I just want to live a simplistic life, " he says.