Teen Voice: What Matters to Me

What matters to me by Jaime Sanchez, Club 1515

Most of the things we love and use today were sparked from someone just who decided one day to stop expecting things by default. That's the difference between those who are accept things as they are and those who change the world. Imagine our world without innovators. That's why what matters to me; empowering people to realize their potential and innovate. It's not about what you've been handed but what you do with it. This is a lesson that I have learned throughout my time at The Boys & Girls Clubs.

Growing up, I found myself in foster care. Twice. Like I said, a couple small decisions and a few big actions from others completely turned my life upside down and put me in a situation and environment I had no control over. My life was in shambles. I didn't have a choice where I would stay, who I would stay with, and I never knew how long the changes would last. I remember the Foster home system being such a hard transition for my sister and I as all we had was taken away from us. It felt like our hands were tied. We had to learn to follow new rules, restrictions, and we had way less freedom. We lost simple things like phones and games, and of course big things like switching schools where we struggled to fit in without being labeled.

When I was finally able to go back to living with my dad, I thought that my life was finally going to be stable; boy was I wrong. Although I was excited to return to my original middle school, when I got there everything was different. It felt like everyone else had moved on and I was stuck in place. There was a lot of peer pressure and I quickly found myself in bad situations. I just wanted to be accepted by the people around me and that led me to into physical fights and doing things that would get attention. Though these behaviors often defined me to others that was never who I was. I was nearly expelled from school and alienated by those same people I was trying so hard to be accepted by.

Going into high school only made things worse and I was barely surviving. People labeled me by my past actions, my grades were hanging by a thread, and I knew those around me didn’t really consider me a friend. I had given up, accepted that this was my life and stopped expecting more.

When the pandemic hit it was like everyone I knew, including myself, went on pause. Thankfully for me, I had The Boys and Girls Club. At the Club they looked

beyond my mistakes and helped me find myself. They helped me get my grades back on track. But more, I was surrounded by staff and peers who I could relate to and these relationships were very different from the ones I had built in middle and high school. My peers were motivated and purposeful. They were doing so many positive things in their life and I knew that was the kind of person I wanted to be too.

I had so many amazing and personal conversations with the staff there and was able to open up with my peers about how I was struggling. The people around me built up my confidence and helped me get the resources I needed to achieve my new goals. In short, that year was a reset and that time shifted my perspective and showed me that I had a lot more to give.

As a foster kid I felt like nearly everything was decided for me, and that really intensified the pressure to fit in when I returned. Through my time at the Club I’ve realized that while I had a lot of challenges to overcome, I also have a lot of choices available to help me overcome them. I can choose to be more, I can choose to do more, I can choose.

So going into my junior year of high school, with the help of The Club, I made the choice to take control of my education and transfer to a school where I could get the immediate help and guidance I needed. I took the risk and transferred to New Technology high school, a project-based school that centered around the students, has a smaller population, and has classes based around my strengths and interests.

Going to New Technology High School was a major opportunity that changed the course of my own story. I’ll never forget that feeling I had after my first day of school on that campus; it was full of so much life and optimism. I remember leaving school and rushing to tell my friends and staff at the Club how well it actually went and to thank them for motivating me to make the change. That’s when I realized that I had the power to shape the course of not only my education but my future.

Now every day, I'm excited to wake up and go to school. I know how to say yes to new opportunities for my future. I'm surrounded by teachers and friends who care. I used to think that I was at a stage where I knew everything there was to know about myself, everyone around me, and the small world that I live in. I used to feel powerless. I used to feel like I couldn't have any positive effect on the outcome of my life. Now, as the world move’s on from Covid I feel like I’ve caught up while everyone else was on pause. I still have work to do and I definitely don’t have everything figured out, but I can do a lot more with what I already have, and that mindset is really all we need.