Heroes

 There are three different people that come to mind when I think of my heroes. Those three people are probably the most important people in my life and each for very different reasons. The first being my dad, he’s my hero because he has taught me everything I know about life. For example, he’s showed me that all the little things in life matter and even when you’re having a bad day smile, because the only way to get rid of a bad day is to have a good one. Also that simplicity and honesty will get you farther in life more than complications can. My dad’s the best man I know. He doesn’t let anything get him down.

            The second being my mom although, she taught me many things the ones that stayed with me are the ones she didn’t even mean to teach. She taught me strength, unconditional love, and how to forgive or forget the ones that hurt you most. My mom’s the strongest person I know. She doesn’t let anything stop her from moving forward.

            My sister is my 3rd hero. She’s left the biggest impact on my life. She’s the hardest headed and kind-hearted person I have ever met. My sisters the only person that has been by my side all my life. She taught me everything I need to know about life and being a girl and she keeps me sane when I go crazy. She is one of the few people I can tell anything and everything to. I’m beyond grateful for her. She’s given be the best gift, my niece Aaliya, she is the happiest baby and current family favorite. My sisters the bravest person I know. My heroes are the people in my life that have taught what I know and are the reason I am who I am.

-Kenna Watts

Who is my hero?

Out of all the people I can say are amazing peers and inspirations, there is only about 3 people I can say are my heroes; I’ll mention both here. My biggest female hero is and will always be Stevie Nicks. She is an iconic staple in music being a part of the group Fleetwood Mac with 4 other people where they make perfect sync. I’d have to say she is my hero because of how her music can change my mood instantly. I’ve never been one to dance but when I hear the first spark of her voice, every bone in my body wants to move. She makes me feel my soul and suddenly I feel free of anything the world has to throw me. I aspire to be like her is all ways. I grew up with an older soul so my choice of clothing goes hand in hand with that and I always seem to throw in something that reminds me of her. I also know she is a witch and personally I’m not one but I have really been fond of all witchcraft is about, truly fascinating. My other hero is my cousin Maribeth, she passed away in 2014 at the age of 24. Growing up I consistently looked up to her by how loud and cheerful she was and how carefree she carried herself. She never failed to put a smile on my face or have me laughing to the point I couldn’t breathe. As I come to age I notice her in me, my laugh, my hair, how I act, how I look and my family sees it too. My aunt, my cousin’s mom, she said every time she sees me it’s like she’s looking at Maribeth and that hits me like a train. At the end of the year when I turn 18 I will be getting a tattoo for her that I’ve been planning since she passed, an Aztec sun and moon. The moon to represent Maribeth as she is only alive in the night time to me and how she is in the dark and the sun to represent me, alive during the day with a bright warm face to show everyone Maribeth lives through me. My final hero is my dad as cliché as it sound he truly is incredible. My dad and I haven’t always been so close but since I was around 10 we’ve been close. My dad always lifts me up in every situation even though he has fail as all humans do, I pick him up and vice versa. I wouldn’t change anything.

-Samantha Mason

            I really don't have a hero I only have people I look up to if I was to say I do have a hero it would be music. Music has been around me my whole life my mom put headphones on her belly and that's when it all began. My mom says when I used to cry she would sing three little birds by Bob Marley to me and it literally made every little thing alright. Couple years later my sister and brother in law moved in and he was always rapping and listening to rap so that's when I found a new music taste. Throughout the years I’ve went through stupid sounding rap to good sounding rap and have developed my own taste for music. When my parents got divorced that's when music became more of a medicine than anything. If the song can speak my mind for me and it literally tells my pain it can help me out so much. I just got a guitar recently so lately when I’ve gotten mad sad etc.. I just play some rifts and I don't know how to explain it than I just feel like I’m in my own little universe and nothing can touch me. The reason that really got me going with the guitar dream is there's a Led Zeppelin song called heartbreaker and there's a awesome solo in the middle of the song and I said to myself I want to do that and now I can play white stripes by seven nation army some of smoke on the water and iron man by Black Sabbath. To end this off I’ll let you know some of my favorite artists/bands. So of course I love Led Zeppelin I just love the screams Robert plant will do and I love how peaceful the songs sound. I like Metallica for there not to crazy sounding metal and guitar riffs. Getting into rap I mainly like 80s-late 90s just because they rap about actual things that were happening to them and they weren't just rapping about doing drugs and stuff like that but I do also listen to some new rap like tech n9ne and Chris Webby and artists like them they rap about a lot of stuff I like and some global issues that are going on which is another reason I like them they have stuff to say about what's going on in the world. Getting into like heavy metal and stuff like that I like slipknot and Korn and stuff like that basically if it can get me in a kind of energized mood etc.. I know I like it. That’s what I would call my hero if I had to say I have one.

-Dylin Morin

Be a Voice For Others

I’ve struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts my whole childhood. My mom tells me stories about how when I got mad or sad I started scratching myself. I scratched the word ‘hated’ into my skin when I was around 8 years old. That was way before I even knew what self-harm or cutting was. I never understood why I did it, it was just like had to, like it was an addiction. It still is an addiction. Growing older and heading into middle school I kept having these panic attacks, and the only way I could stop myself was to cause myself pain. I turned to using sharper objects and it just got worse and worse. My parents found out I was stealing their razors and they treated me differently. If anyone ever saw my cuts they’d say I was asking for attention so I got really good at hiding it and putting on a fake smile. I was an outcast, I never felt like I belonged anywhere until I came to Crossroads. After multiple suicide attempts, mental hospitals, and life or death situations. I finally realized I’m not as alone as I feel. I learned how to love myself and open up to new people. I found a home in Crossroads; I never had anyone I trusted to talk to growing up. Yes it took me a few months to come out of my shell when I came to Crossroads, but when I did I blossomed. I couldn’t be more grateful for what my teachers and Bridgette have taught me. I always thought something was wrong with me or that I was crazy, but it was just my panic attacks that were triggering my impulsive suicidal thoughts. Getting too overwhelmed was the main cause of of my panic attacks. Bridgette always helped me adjust my schedule around just so I wouldn't get too stressed. When I do start to get anxiety or start to have a panic attack, I can always go to Bridgette to calm me down.

After years of struggling, I wanted something good to come out of it, and I decided to join Voices of Youth which helped me learn how to talk about some of my triggers. I joined this group to give all youth in our community a voice. There are so many people, especially kids, struggling with depression and similar problems I've struggled with. They have no one to talk to. They feel alone like I did. Each year at Voices of Youth I open up and share some of my darkest moments on stage with the whole community watching; including a lot of middle schoolers. It has a huge impact on me and hopefully a huge impact on the community as well. I had a young 13 year old girl come up to me after hearing my story, and she told me about how she was thinking about killing herself until she heard my story. I helped some young girls feel like they weren’t so alone. The second year I talked about sexual abuse, and I was sadly surprised how many people opened up to me about similar situations; people who were to afraid to stand up for themselves or tell anybody. It's hard talking about my past but I'd share my story a thousand times if that meant I'm helping other people. I'd do anything to help people remember they are loved and that they are strong enough to make it through all the dark times that life might throw at us. I almost died several times, but that last time when I woke up I had a whole new perspective on life. Life was all-of-a sudden so precious to me; I was afraid of death for once. I realized how selfish I would be to leave all the people who did truly love me behind. How much pain it would cause them, and how much pain I've already caused him. It took time, but I slowly started to remember who I was deep down, and I learned to love myself.

Teen Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy and parenting while trying to graduate is an extremely difficult task but it is doable. My daughter’s name is Karsin and she is almost two years old. I'm also currently 8 months pregnant with my 2nd baby girl named Kodi. Being a teen mom has been hard but my girls are what has given me the motivation to keep moving forward to graduate and go to college this upcoming fall. I have had to miss school due to Karsin being sick and not being able to be in daycare, doctors’ appointments for myself and Karsin, moving multiple times, being in the hospital due to being sexually harassed, not having transportation, and so much more.

Karsin being sick has caused some turmoil in school. When she is sick she can't be in daycare which makes it to where I need to stay home with my little one and take care of her. She has had anything from colds to upper respiratory infections and worse. Don't get me wrong when she's sick all I want to do is stay home snuggle her, watch movies, eat soup, and sleep all day until she gets better but that's not the reality. I have to catch up on my school work so I can graduate instead of being able to always do those things. Being pregnant while having a toddler has caused me to miss school because of doctors’ appointments and doctors’ orders. When Karsin is sick she needs to go in to get checked out and most of the time get on antibiotics so she can heal and get better. This pregnancy I've had some difficulties with severe exhaustion and other things. There have been such bad concerns to where I've been told that I need to take it easy and rest as much as possible.. Which again means missing school.

My two kids have the same dad but at the very beginning of this pregnancy he left me which caused me to have to move in with his grandma. After about a week there things weren't working out how I thought so I needed to move. A lovely friend of mine let me and Karsin move in with her. After a couple months I found out that I had to be out in March of 2019 because the park rules state that you have to be actual family to be living on the lot with them. I then moved back into my children's fathers’ grandma’s house for about a month and an unfortunate event caused me to have to move again. I was sexually assaulted by Anthony's aunt’s boyfriend Scott Shipley. I was in the hospital and had to have forensic testing done. I couldn't stay there anymore because his aunt was blaming the event on me so I had to move in with my mom in Renton. Living in Renton without my license caused me to have to figure transportation out which took me out of school for about a week.

Life can be very frustrating and you may never understand why certain things happen to you. You won't always deserve what life throws at you but you have to make the choice to keep moving forward despite everything. My girls are my life and without them I don't think that I would even be graduating at all. With what I have explained above I'm sure you can see that I've had quite a few bumps in the roads but despite them I'm still continuing to move forward so I can do what's best for myself and my babies.

-Bryanna Daves

Student Loss

Growing up I thought that my friends and I would be together through everything like graduating, going to college, getting married and starting a family; all the normal things we think about when we become adults. Little did I know, and now come to learn, is my friends are not invincible and can't cheat death. I knew from the beginning what death was and that it's what happens when we finish our legacy and grow old with our loved ones. I was wrong and lately it feels like a wave of toxicity coming across our generation to wipe us all out. It hurts to see the ones who you have become your own person with leave and you never being able to share your experiences with. All these waves that devour me hits me with realization that even though I can’t control the fate of others, I need to learn how to live like it’s my friends' last. I need to put up a wall so if anything were to happen to anyone of us, they or myself will know they were loved and cared for through everything. Now I’m only human so life can’t be that easy and perfect, but I am willing to try, I think we all should try to do that more. Even just subtle reminders to your friends and family to show love. I’d say write it down but that is more difficult so at the end of every week, reflect and try to be sure you showed some type of gratitude. I know the community is going through some tough times at the moment and we may never get over that but a way to make yourself and others feel a bit happier, we need to show love and support.

-Samantha Mason

Winter poem

Winter poem

Wind brushes against me

And is very awakening

No sun to be found

No snow on the ground

How is it winter?

I storm out the house

All cozy and warm

For the cold to come aboard

As I seek to greet my family

Smiles in their eyes

We share what we mesmerized

In spirit of the season about

In hope of the holiday cheer

We spread our embrace for the new year

-Samantha Mason

My belief on Holidays

Besides the actual meaning of the Holidays, I believe they were created to give people something to look forward to or create traditions. For example, I know that the reason for Christmas is to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but I think nowadays if you were to ask someone the meaning of Christmas they would say it’s a time to spend with friends and family and give back to your loved ones. Although Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I think Santa has become pretty popular when it comes to Christmas. Thanksgiving was created to celebrate the festival of the Pilgrims after we arrived in the new world but now it’s more for giving thanks and appreciating loved one. New Years is to celebrate the start of a new year or chapter and I think people think of it more as a time to start fresh and make a change.

I believe we remember the original meaning of all of these holidays but as Americans we put our own twist on them. For example on the 4th of July when they signed the declaration of independence, I don’t think they were cooking hot dogs but that’s pretty common now. When Easter was created way back when Jesus was resurrected, I don’t think people were doing Easter egg hunts and painting them.

My point being that I think we take these traditions and celebrations and kind of make them our own. Not by of taking the meaning out of these holidays but more adding our own twist to them such as Santa, giving gifts, egg hunting, and barbecuing. I think in some way we modernize each holiday a little bit more every year. Although the real meaning behind each holiday is important and it’s the reason we have these celebrations in the first place, I think it’s a good thing we’ve added our own twist and have formed our own traditions to go along with these celebrations.

-Kenna Watts

Winter

As the cold came upon us

And the darkness rose

While we waited for snow

All the lights lits up

And all the stores full

People rushing

Christmas coming

Although it’s not over

we still stand cold

Waiting for the snow

-Kenna Watts