Once we found out that we were coming out to Seattle for Buddy's internship, I started looking around for an internship. I ended up with an unpaid internship at a place called Echo Glen. Echo Glen is a juvenile rehabilitation center/prison. The ages vary a ton! There are kids as young as 10 and as old as 21 locked up in Echo Glen. There are probably a couple hundred kids total there but I work with a very specific group of only 16 kids. The youngest in my group is 13 and the oldest is 18. There are 4 girls and 12 boys. All of the kids are locked up for various crimes: auto theft, drug trafficking, burglary, and one of my kids is in there for stabbing his brother. Even though they all have different crimes, the kids that I work with all have one thing in common: drug and substance abuse. Most of the kids started drugs around the age of ten and spiraled until they ended up in Echo Glen.
Their life stories are simply tragic and usually go something like this: When I was one, I was taken to live with my grandma because my mom got put in jail and my dad ran away. When I was 2 my mom got out of jail. When I was 3 I went and lived with my mom. When I was 4, my mom's boyfriend started beating us bad. When I was 5 my mom went to jail and I was put in foster care. When I was 6 I went and lived with my dad, he beat me. When I was 7 I was put back into foster care. When I was 8, my mom got out of jail and I went and lived with her. When I was 9 her boyfriend beat us both again. When I was 10, I started drinking my mom's alcohol. When I was 11, I started using my mom's meth and heroine. When I was 12, I got put back into foster care and my mom went back to jail. When I was 13, I stole a car, and now I'm here at Echo Glen.
Some kids have worse stories about living on the streets because their parents got sick of them so they joined gangs to try and survive. Some don't know that a life can exist without drugs and alcohol because they have never seen it and don't know any different. Some do everything they can to end back up in Echo Glen because it's the only kind of a home they have ever known where the actually have supervisors that care and they get 3 meals a day.
My eyes have never been so open to..... life. I've seen movies and such about this kind of stuff but I've never actually SEEN it in real life. Some kids don't really care and they plan on going back to the same things when they get out but some do care! I was talking to a black 16 year old with the most awesome fro yesterday and asked him what his plans were, he said: "Man, I ain't NEVER coming back! When I get myself out of here, I'm moving FAR away sos that nobody knows me. And I'ma move myself into a nice apartment place where every bruthas clean and STRAIGHT. I ain't never goin' back to drugs and crap. They justa ruins my life!" I seriously wanted to give him a standing ovation!!!!! I wish every kids had that kind of mentality.
Yesterday, we also got to hear a sobering story from one of the inmates of how she over dosed and was left on the street to die by her so called 'friends' who didn't want to get caught with heroin. She was almost dead when someone found her and called 911. She was in a coma for a couple weeks and the doctors were saying that she was going to be a vegi when she woke up and that her brain was completely fried. Well, she woke up and she practically was a vegi. She had to relearn how to talk and walk along with many other tasks. She now suffers from hearing loss, all because she wanted to get high one night.
I've been thinking a lot about my life in comparison. I have had a GREAT life!!! I've never been beaten, I've never done drugs or alcohol, I'm just about to graduate from college, I'm married and the happiest I've ever been! And all of this in large because of one person who wanted to break a cycle. My mom. Her dad was an alcoholic and would beat her mom. Growing up, she had 2 choices, each leading her down a different path: she could choose to drink and party because that's what she grew up around and what was probably the 'easier' choice, or she could choose to break the cycle. I am so grateful that she chose the later. She stayed far away from making bad choices that would make her life miserable, she stayed sober, clean, and chaste. Then she met my amazing father and married him. Together they grew strong in the gospel and the 9 years before they had kids, prepared for when that day would come by going to church and creating the perfect home for their kids. Then us kids came along!!! And they continued doing those this and teaching us kids the good way to live life and how to find joy and happiness in it. They gave us every opportunity to learn and to grow!! All of this because of a choice. Not an easy choice, but a necessary choice. I am forever grateful to my parents who provided me with safety, security, love, faith, and so so much more. So mom and dad, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you for giving me so much and for your choices in life. I love you guys.
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