I know what it feels like to walk into a new house and not know if you’re staying two weeks or two years.

I know what it feels like to pretend you’re okay at school when your whole life feels unstable.

There were nights I felt unwanted, moments I questioned my worth, and I would wonder, “Why me? Why did my life start like this?”

Foster care can make you lose your sense of belonging and feel like you need to become more guarded. You learn to be strong because you have to, not because you choose to.

But let me tell you something I wish I understood earlier:

We are not broken.

We are not disposable.

We are not our placement.

We are powerful — even if we don’t feel like it yet.

Then life hit me again, and I lost my best friend. I was angry, hurt and felt alone all over again. But losing him taught me something. It taught me that life is too short to believe the lie that we don’t matter and have no purpose.

Some of us have experienced more pain before 18 than some people experience in a lifetime, and that’s not fair. But I’ve learned that pain can either make you bitter, or it can make you better. Being in foster care didn’t end me. It built me. Losing my friend didn’t destroy me. It deepened me. It gave me empathy, drive and a reason to want to change things.

That’s why I am in school to be a social worker. I know what it felt like to need somebody, to need just one adult to show up and stay, and I want to be that to foster kids.

Our stories are not done being written.

We can be the first in our family to graduate.

We can build the life we didn’t see growing up.

We can become the stability we never had.

I stand here today not as a victim of my circumstances, but as proof that you can go through it and still grow through it.

We are not what we’ve been through. We are who we decide to become.

Thank you LifeSet for helping us build the lives we deserve, and thanks to everyone here for taking the time to hear our stories.

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