Category: Piece of the Week

-Samantha, Marin   Forgiveness. I always wish I knew how to forgive, truly forgive. My biological mother just came back into my life recently. For the first time since I was five years old, I hadn’t seen or heard anything about her since then.  I was scared of her to say the least. She exposed me to things no child should ever be exposed to at that age. No person or child should ever, I mean never, be exposed to what she did. She ruined my childhood. I never will be able to really be a kid.  At six years

-Sanguine, Santa Cruz I rarely receive any compliments honestly. The times that I do it’s often on my outfits or my taste in music. My usual response goes like, “Thank you.”  I feel a little awkward after, like I should’ve said something different or my response was too dry. I don’t really know how to take compliments because, like I said, I rarely receive them. What I find even harder or more awkward is how to respond to people after giving them a compliment.  Usually, when I give someone a compliment they usually respond with something like “Aw, thank you,”

-Chucky, San Francisco In ten years, if I receive a letter from myself, I will be very surprised and proud of myself that I’ve made it this far. What I would tell my future self is to never give up on your dreams. Your dreams and aspirations will lead you to what is destined.  I’ll tell myself to always keep your closest family and friends, and never to give up on them. Family and friends are all we got.  What I want to tell myself is that, although you had an extremely rough start with childhood, you can’t let this

-Smalls, San Diego  Being grown up, in my honest opinion, I think requires being responsible and respectful. I think that I’m somewhat grown up, I just goof around too much and growing up my parents taught me to be respectful. Today was pretty alright. I woke up late. I lowkey had a weird dream about aliens and two hundred animals, which was plenty. Well, then I called my lil girlfriend and she had to go ‘cause she had school. Then after I hung up on her I worked out with the homie.  I remember as a kid how I would

-CG, Sacramento On the outs I have a fun and simple life. Most days, I’m with my family spending it playing video games, watching TV, or playing sports at the park. After school, I go over to my friend’s house and we go out to Fire Wings and have some fun. My friends and I go out and do some stuff I can’t say. I’m up till midnight out with my friends and having fun. In the day, I go to my brother’s house and play some Assassins Creed. After that I’m back at home and then I go out

-Priscilla, Santa Clara If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple: know what you are doing; love what you are doing; believe in what you are doing.  For years I’ve defined success as knowing your purpose, growing to your potential, sowing seeds that benefit others, by making the right value choices and living them every day! Success isn’t something you achieve. Successful is something you are.  For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train,

-GH, Stanislaus People say dreams are “a way for our brains to process information gathered during the day.” I beg to differ — I don’t always agree with this statement.  It’s actually ironic that I was just talking to my mom at visiting (because I’m currently in juvenile hall) and somehow the topic of “dreams” came up. I told her I had a dream of my grandma, which is my mom’s mom. It was odd for me because my grandma passed away three years ago in July.  Ever since she passed, I would ask God why he wouldn’t give me

-Siam, San Mateo  I chose “sharing my passion” because I like playing football and boxing. And what makes me wake up in the morning and to keep going is my family because I want to make it to the top to get my family out of an apartment and the ghetto. And also I want to be the first one to make it to the top playing football, hopefully making it playing football or the NFL. If I don’t make it to the NFL I’m going to try to invest in real estate because I would love to sell houses

-Serenity, San Diego The movie of life changed my perspective; not social media or an actual movie. The story of people like me changed the way I act and my perspective on people.  We were introduced to this lifestyle at a young age. Whether we were raised like this or not, our destiny always catches up to us.  Even if we try to change, the system won’t let us. We’re labeled as the product of our society or our past. If nice girls finish first, maybe my attitude would change. The only question I was left with is, does it

-B, Sacramento  My first experience with true love, pure love is with my daughter. My moms tried to provide that for me. My child’s mother tried to give that to me, but the love my mother showed me didn’t process in my mind what it really was.  So, I suffered from abandonment issues and I would push away the people who loved me, until I met my daughter in person. It changed my whole world and perspective on love and how to love, so I’ve been working on myself.            You have to love yourself before