Joy T. / Our future starts with us.

My most challenging experience in foster care was when I was living in Inglewood and went to Morningside High School and was being bullied. I didn’t know how to handle it and I didn’t have any friends to help me. I was alone and the school staff just brushed it off like it was nothing. I felt worthless and meaningless to everyone. It was a struggle being at that school and being picked on, due to my last fight with a girl at school I was transferred to another school all the way in Venice Beach. It was a new experience and I still had no friends to talk to I felt stuck.

My advice to give current foster youth in the system now is to hold your head up and stay strong because things will be rough in the beginning, but God promised us a future and our future starts with us. The only one that can change your mind is yourself because you are the only one with your own self-worth. Never say you are not worth it because you are because the only one in this is you and you alone can make a change for you and your future. We make a difference in the world because we are strong and open-hearted.

 The system taught me how to be independent and a better woman for myself. I was taught the importance of self-worth and confidence.

What I really needed when emancipating from the foster care system was support. Growing up in the system made me feel like everything was supposed to be done for me and when I found out that wasn’t true it was time for me to grow up. I had to figure things out myself with the minimal help that I did have and put in work for what was right.