Hannah M. / Don't be so hard on yourself as your growing

Hannah talks about her biggest challenge she faced in foster care. She speaks on her siblings and her being removed from her mother's care at the age of 12. Her being the oldest of 4, It was extremely heartbreaking to experience and a huge separation in that way.

Navigating the foster care system, one of the most difficult part she faced in the foster care system was not being stable and never learning how to be stable. It was always different for everyone and she didn't know herself enough to know what she truly wanted out of life. They were never taught the proper self-care, financial care , or mental care to to maintain and keep a balance of stability. She overcame this by acknowledging it and being honest with herself. Now she knows how to ask for help and she pray that whatever she don't know will be guided through her.

She states “ 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.

"God will teach me or put the right people in my path to teach me on how to maintain a happy stable future. I'm moving on faith now."

She wishes people understood it was more long term bonds in the foster community. That they weren't all done once they aged out. She wish some resources were still available or still around the foster community when they genuinely don't know where to go. She don't believe 21 years old is the right age to age out, she wishes she would've learned more about self-care about what a woman is, what a lady is , what a girl do , and what a girl don't do. Being that she had to learn it in had reverse way affected her because after she move not knowingly it's hard to erase what she have already done. So she had to enter the world of self forgiving .

She speaks on the barrers she faced when it came to school. Once she got to college and realize that she had no support at home or away from school. School wasn't forced anymore so it was hard to maintain. She had to want to graduate. She had to want to not want the other life in order to understand that She need to keep going, Although she haven't graduated college yet, her academic behavior has changed now that she is aware she won't have support with everything. She believe knowing more people in the school community would've helped her graduate or be closer to her graduation goal than what she is now.

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.

Her life is still in the foster care system being that her siblings are still in the foster system and haven't aged out yet. So she has came to terms with that Foster doesn't have to be a bad thing. This doesn't have to be a bad world. There's a lot of us in the foster care system who will become successful and we can all help and learn from each other.

she had to change her perspective of what " foster "means in order to move forward and overcome the horrific emotions behind this community .

"Understand that it's not your fault and you couldn’t control your childhood or change it . So don't be so hard on yourself as your growing.."

She envisions herself working on her second degree in college while started her career goal. Also, She see herself completing her personal goals and starting her business flourishing in that area of her life as well. Mostly excited to invite her siblings to her graduation So she can start creating happy memories together.