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Anonymous Recipient
21 Years Old
Kansas Foster Care System
Anonymous recipient, currently 21 years of age, attends Wichita State University in Kansas while working multiple jobs in healthcare. Anonymous recipient has experienced adoption and four different placements during their time in foster care, entering care during their teen years in Kansas.
Anonymous recipient experiences during foster care and things they observed and learned motivated them to advocate for those in care, so that they can have a better experience in care than anonymous did. The foster care system is a traumatic and unstable environment for most youth, as it was for them, and the feeling of having no choices in anything-no free will- while being so isolated, are things that anonymous recipient wants to change for foster youth of the future. In their free time, anonymous enjoys playing piano and looking at Pinterest. They also enjoy spending time with their “Little Sister” through their membership in Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters, a community mentoring program. In the future, they plans to finish their bachelor’s degree and go on to work in industry or attend graduate school.
To anyone in foster care, anonymous recipient would remind them that “now is not forever” and to take as many steps as possible towards preparing for and improving their future after age 18. With the emotional turmoil that the system brings it can be easy to become discouraged and depressed, with little hope for the future, but they believes it is important to keep a future-focused mindset and remember that no matter how bad things may seem, circumstances will not remain the same forever.
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”- Carl Gustav Jung