It was a month after my high school graduation. I was a 17-year-old, unhopeful of what was next for me. All I knew was that I needed to learn how to be an adult.
As an adoptee, I told my parents I needed to experience the real world, so I planned to live with my biological mother for a year. I wanted to get my first job and learn how to be more independent before college.
This was my version of a gap year.
Their love for me had sheltered and spoiled me. I met their concern for me with, “I’m almost 18 anyway” and “You can always call me on the cell phone you pay for.”
I was self-aware enough to know that my parents coddled me. So, what better way to attain new life skills than to live with the woman who gave me life.
Unfortunately, a week before my eighteenth birthday, I would find myself in Indiana’s foster care system.
An unconventional foster youth
My birth mother was a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. It was my one-year-old half-brother, her and me all packed inside a tiny apartment on Meridian Street in a dangerous neighborhood.
It wasn’t a safe environment for children.
Needless to say, standing before a judge who was blatantly confused about why I was even put in the system, I told him I wanted to learn how to be an adult since I was eighteen now.
That landed me in Collaborative Care, Indiana’s extended foster care program.
I stayed in two separate homes and was assigned two different case workers within a year.
Foster care does not come without a stigma of abuse and neglect. There were plenty of times I felt like the people in charge of caring for me did not, but I was always reminded by my parents that I could come home.
RELATED: I deserved better during my time in foster care
Meeting other kids in foster care who did not have that option was an eye-opener. It made me appreciate my parents even more.
I felt like a poser utilizing the resources the state gave me, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t use them.
I got my first job.
I learned I had a great work ethic. I learned how to save money.
I learned about people too.
That is something I don’t think a lot of folks often think about.
I learned that the system itself was flawed, but there were some good people willing to help youth in need.
I got another job, and I gave myself exactly a year before I called my mother and asked if I could finally come home. I was ready for college.
How you can help foster care youth
Related: Foster Grandparent Program enriches the lives of students and seniors
Years later, I would run into one of my old case workers.
I thanked her for being supportive of my plan while I was in the system.
She told me about how things have gotten worse and better, and she hoped that I could use my experience to help others within the system.
That is why I plan to volunteer with Foster Success in Indianapolis.
It is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and I encourage you to think about the state’s nearly 17,000 school-aged foster youth.
Some have temporary stories like mine.
Others were within the system far longer than I was.
Contact staff writer Jade Jackson at 317-607-5792 or by email JadeJ@IndyRecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON
