Heysell M.D. / Life can be hard but there is always a way to succeed.

Heysell talks about her biggest challenge she faced in foster care. She speaks on was telling her friends or just people around her that she was in foster care, because they would ask for an explanation as to why and It was really difficult to explain it without crying. She overcame this by going to therapy for 2 years. Being in foster care is not bad and you don't have to feel guilty that your situation is different than your friends because life is different for everyone. After learning about that she felt more confident to talk to people about my situation.

Navigating the foster care system, one of the most difficult parts she faced in the foster care system was was reliving her trauma every single time a social worker or someone came to see her. They would repeat everything, the first 4 months she relived every single time that someone came to her placement to talk about it. She wish people didn't judge her ,because they think that when she says she’s in foster care they think that she was the bad one and was doing things that she was not supposed to and that's why she got placed in foster care. She also wish people was more considerate and did not ask questions on why.

When she says she’s in foster care people think that she was the bad one and was doing things that she was not supposed to and that's why she got placed in foster care. She also wish people was more considerate and did not ask questions on why.

She states “ Something that brought me comfort was my favorite sport which is volleyball, I played volleyball everyday and played for my high school team for 3 years and it was a wonderful experience.

"Something that the Public can do is support foster youth who want to persuee a higher education, they can maybe donate clothes, school supplies, and other things that can help uplift the young fosters to go above and beyond.."

Unfortunately her foster parents are Salvadorian just like her, so the holidays were not much different from the ones she did, Her foster mom included all of them as if they were apart of her family and they would help her cook, and prepared the food, set up the tables. They played games and open presents all together. She made sure that they didn't feel left out.

She speaks on the barriers she faced when it came to school. While she was in high school, she did not have any problems at all, she was pretty organized and always prioritized for school, so she did not have a problem at all in high school. College she’s not too sure about or if she will have problems because she’s barely starting this fall 2024 but she do expect some things to be difficult.

As she reflects on her foster care journey, she identifies comfort and how therapy truly brought her comfort in the foster care system because it helped her realize that nothing was wrong with her and that everything can be ok.

As of the moment she haven't aged out of the foster system, but something that she would most likely need help with, she think it would be finding housing after she turn 21.

Looking back on her foster care experience she is most proud of going to college, and being able to be the first generation of her family to actually get accepted into college and try to pursue a higher education. She loves to play volleyball cook and try new recipes. Going to the beach and connect with nature, doing new things.

"To always take advantage of the many resources that can be offered to you, never give up because you think you don't have the opportunity to do it, life can be hard but there is always a way to succeed, never give up on your dreams.."

She envisions herself with her bachelor's degree working as Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) and going to medical school for her Registered nurse degree. Becoming a Registered nurse, she wants to work in the delivery/NICU.