The teenage years are a tough time for most young people to handle. In her younger teens, Sharon Michelle faced more uphill climbs than many her age.

She lived in three different homes, exposed to substance use and required to follow strict rules. She was never allowed to make friends, attend after-school activities and get a job, all the things her peers enjoyed.

The trauma she suffered took away her hope for a promising future. “I believed when I turned 18, I was going to run away and disappear,” Sharon Michelle said.

Changes, abuse led to a dark time

The challenges for Sharon Michelle started just before middle school when she lived with her mother, who abused drugs. As a result, she was removed and placed with her grandfather. During her time there, she never enrolled or attended school.

Two years later, Sharon Michelle moved again, this time to live with her father, and re-enrolled in school. Despite missing the previous two years of school, she was placed in eighth grade.

“I kept myself reading those two years,” Sharon Michelle said. “Reading was how I got through a lot of things.”

The time in her father’s home quickly turned downhill due to substance use by her father and stepmother. Arguments broke out, and their anger frequently spilled over to Sharon Michelle.

“It got to the point here it was no longer just emotional abuse,” Sharon Michelle said. “They have gotten physical with each other. Over time, they began to get physical with me.”

At school, Sharon Michelle was a good student but was only allowed to attend class and nothing else. Her father made her come home immediately after school every day.

Finally, she talked with her school counselor who encouraged her to contact Child Protection Services. She did, but after CPS came by the home, the situation got worse. Friction in the home grew.

“It was a toxic household,” Sharon Michelle said. “I had been in a dark place for some time. Those suicidal thoughts came back that day, and I was taken to a medical facility.”

LifeSet offers Sharon Michelle a new outlook

After her time at the medical facility, Sharon Michelle was referred to Youth Villages’ LifeSet program, and Erna Sveinsdottir became her specialist. LifeSet is a program that helps young
people who experienced foster or kinship care have a successful journey into adulthood.

The challenges, though, didn’t end. Sharon Michelle’s father and stepmother were against her specialist coming to the home, and Sharon Michelle still struggled with suicidal ideation.

“I was so mentally drained and depressed from living there, I had no motivation to do school at all,” Sharon Michelle said. “I was scared to leave because I couldn’t just tell them.”

LifeSet helps young people as they transition to adulthood by teaching life skills, goal setting, help in finding a job and housing, budgeting and more. With encouragement from Erna, Sharon Michelle moved out of her father’s home to a new place where she started working on her plan of finishing high school and attending college.

After her move, Sharon Michelle achieved her first goal: she graduated high school as an honor roll student and enrolled in nursing school.

LifeSet also taught Sharon Michelle, now 19, how to take better care of herself. After no doctor visits for five years, Erna helped Sharon Michelle arrange more than 40 appointments to catch up on her health.

Aside from goal setting, LifeSet helped Sharon Michelle gain self-confidence. She has the courage to set boundaries with others and be more assertive. Most of all, she is happy.

“Before LifeSet, I would look at myself, and I was disgusted,” Sharon Michelle said. “I felt unworthy of living. Being in LifeSet, it gave me a new purpose, a reason to live.”

Now, Sharon Michelle is in her second semester of nursing school and doing well in her classes. She is a LifeSet Scholar, which provides additional support of a mentor to go along with her specialist.

“LifeSet has given me multiple reasons to live,” Sharon Michelle said. “They have done so much for me that it’s hard to put into words. I had nothing; now I have so much.”

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