Category: Piece of the Week

by Zariah, San Mateo When I look at my life and where I’m heading, I take a step back and pause. I know my life isn’t a hundred percent healthy, but physically I am healthy. Mentally and internally, I am not a hundred percent there.  At times, I feel like I am internally fading away in the abyss. The people I associate with and call a relationship at least took a part of me. Every time I would try to make a healthy relationship, a little piece of my compassion for a person would fade away. My mind isn’t always

by Sergio, Santa Cruz My name is Sergio and I’m in here being charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor. I just recently got booked into Juvenile Hall. My trial hasn’t even started but I’ve made my first appearance in court.  I’ve been a Christian almost all my life but for a while I started to separate myself from the church and even God. He’s been by my side my whole life, and I just took it for granted. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life but he’s always been with me. Even now that I pushed myself

by Uz, San Francisco One day I will go home. One day I will. One day I will see a better future. One day I will get released. One day I won’t be in jail. I’ve been away for a year and my life has completely changed. I have some friends waiting for me and I have family waiting for me.  So, I won’t be all alone. It will be a big transition for me. I’m scared. What if things do not work out? I don’t know. I really can’t see myself going to jail again. The only big thing

by M, Sacramento I remember when I got good grades in school and wanted to do a lot of stuff. I would go to my dad’s and we would go bowling. I slowly started getting bad grades and stopped wanting to go do things. I didn’t want to go to my dads or my grandmas anymore. I actually didn’t even want to be home.  My grades slowly started dropping, they went from As and Bs to Cs and Ds. From there they got worse, I was leaving after school and hanging out all day. I wasn’t doing homework, I was

by BK, Santa Cruz I would take a picture of me and my friend, my little brother and stepdad (AKA Ramon) while the background’s a beautiful sunset with an owl in the background. And aguachile as the food. My fave book is “Charlotte’s Web.”  My fave view was being in the mountains and the view was the sun in the middle of the woods and it was yellow, pink. My journey’s crazy. I’d met people I never think I’ll stop talking to. My mom doesn’t really care about anyone, so I just had to learn to not care. My dad

by Damian, Santa Cruz  I have a lot of fun memories of me growing up, playing sports at school and just being with friends. Right now, I try to look back on the good memories. For example, I like to think about my basketball/football seasons, every time I spend with my family over the years, good and bad.  One memory that gets to me is when I was younger, about six to eight. I had an uncle who was incarcerated. He was about twenty-eight. I remember so perfectly one day my mom got a phone call from him while he

by Joshli, San Mateo There was a time not so long ago where I had a group of friends. This particular group of friends happened to be boys. There was a time when I was hanging out with them and my other girlfriend. We were drinking and smoking in this friend group. There was a boy that liked me but I could only see him as a friend.  This boy made it clear to me that he had other feelings for me and would flirt with me and try to get my attention as a typical teenage boy my age

by AD, Sacramento The way I cope with grief is by crying my eyes out. You know, letting your pain run down your face over and over, just feeling my body shudder with every tear.  I went through a moment of grave grief when I lost my church Bible study teacher/mentor about a month ago. He helped me through tournament competitions and basic bible study. He was even my camp mentor during summer bible camp. I hadn’t seen him since I was about fourteen years old. I had a brief, wonderful run-in with him about two weeks prior to his

by ML, Albuquerque, NM When I think of someone I need to stop feeling angry or resentful towards and forgive, it would have to be my mom. She made multiple mistakes while raising me. At one point, she even picked other things over me and my siblings.  I resented her for letting go of me, but it really got to me and hurt seeing the impact on my little siblings. I had to take on the role and responsibility that should have been hers and told them the truth. For a long time, I never gave her the chance to

by Zion, San Mateo Over-thinking is normal for a person like me every day. I don’t know when it started, it just came out of nowhere. Many thoughts of how I’ll make money for my family, falling into bad paths, and not knowing what’s at the end of those paths.  Many concerns of what people think about me, do I do what they do, but mainly am I down to take the same risks as the people around me. I have concerns about what women would think of me. Many times, I think, am I the guy that takes risks