MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) - A Kansas man is back home after spending the last two-and-a-half years in prison. Deshaun Durham was 20 when he was arrested for having over two pounds of marijuana. He was originally given 92 months, an unusually long punishment for a first-time offender. He was released earlier this month after Gov. Laura Kelly commuted the remainder of his sentence. Kansas prisoner released early after high-powered help Dec. 25 will be his first Christmas home with his family since going to prison. "Such a good feeling to be able to actually enjoy, you know, what comes with the holidays," Durham said. "Be around my family and just celebrate Christmas again and everything like that, you know, it's a pretty intense feeling." Durham was incarcerated at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. When all else failed, he appealed to the governor. "They told me I could fill out a clemency application," he said, "But thousands of people within the prison system put that in, so they're like, 'Oh, you're probably not gonna get it.' So I just sat in my cell one day and wrote a three-page letter to the governor." After years of waiting, he got a response. "I guess in the end, it worked out," Durham said. "They told me I had an interview with the governor's chief legal counsel. Talking to other people in there, they're like, 'Oh, that never happens. So, you know, something good must be on the way.'" Man dies after Pratt house fire, family remembering his dedication to work and life The governor said she doesn't generally discuss specifics of pardons or commutations. When asked about Durham's case, Kelly stood by her history of exercising her power to grant clemency and commute sentences. "We should not keep people incarcerated who don't need to be incarcerated or have been incarcerated for much longer than would have been in, say, another case," Kelly said. Freedom isn't the only gift Durham got for Christmas. After his release, seeing the Kansas City Chiefs play at Arrowhead Stadium was among the top of his to-dos. Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy caught wind of this and made it happen. "It was definitely quite the experience," Durham said. "I went from watching all the Chiefs games on my 13-inch TV that we had at the prison to actually being there and being so close to the field." The Manhattan native didn't get to meet Worthy but hopes to thank him in person someday. "It was a really nice gesture by Xavier Worthy to hook me up like that," he said, "I really hope in the future, he's willing to meet me." Durham is working at a Chinese restaurant while he figures out what's next. He said it's still surreal to be free. It kinda felt like a dream. I had to look at the paper, the commutation paper, a couple times just to make sure it wasn't like scam mail or something, to make sure it was real ... it was hard not to cry a little bit cause, you know, I had about four-and-a-half years left. It's, you know, prison is so hard in there." Deshaun Durham on finding out his sentence was commuted