{"id":11273,"date":"2016-12-08T11:55:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T19:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/?p=11273"},"modified":"2016-12-08T11:55:12","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T19:55:12","slug":"foster-care-abandonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11273\/campus-life\/foster-care-abandonment\/","title":{"rendered":"Foster care and abandonment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The baggage that remains.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had always felt that my
\nmother did not want me. While
\nshe had several opportunities to
\nget me back by simply providing
\na few clean drug tests, she
\nwas unable to do so.
\nI tell myself that I ended up
\nin the foster care system due to
\nher addiction and that she did
\nnot intentionally choose drugs
\nover me; while I do believe that,
\nit still hurts.
\nI got stuck with staff as parent
\nfigures; staff not properly
\ntrained to deal with \u201ctroubled
\nyouth.\u201d Troubled? Me? I was
\ntaken from my mom due to her
\nuse of drugs, her abuse and neglect,
\nand the system called me
\ntroubled.
\nI would run away, right back
\nto my mom\u2014despite how mean
\nand crazy she was; I just wanted
\nmy mom and every time we
\nwould pick up right where we
\nleft off\u2014in complete chaos.
\nThe cops would either find me
\nor she would call them on me
\nand they would take me back to
\nthe children\u2019s shelter.
\nIn these facilities, I was given
\nno room to be a kid or to make
\nmistakes. I wasn\u2019t learning
\nanything conducive to living a
\nhealthy life. I had so many obvious
\nissues that needed to be
\naddressed\u2014such as abandonment,
\ntrauma, depression\u2014but
\nnobody cared enough or knew
\nenough to consider that I was
\nacting out because I had been
\nabandoned by my mother.
\nInstead, I was given a look
\nof disgust, treated like a delinquent,
\nrestrained and put on
\nhigh doses of sedatives.
\nI was not placed in a foster
\nhome or with a foster family. I
\nwas placed in institutions that
\nsmelled and looked like mental
\nhospitals. I could never settle in
\nand get comfortable. It was not
\na home. Living out of big black
\nplastic trash bags, I had nowhere
\nto go, no structure, no future
\nand no place to call home.
\nDrugs became my only friend.
\nI became my mother. I did all
\nof the same patterns, the ones I
\nsaid I would never have. I was
\nliving a miserable existence. I
\nwas not living. I was in a constant
\nstate of fear, which I expressed
\nthrough anger, rage and
\ndestruction. I was a tornado.
\nI aged out of the foster \u201ccare\u201d
\nsystem at the age of 18 years old
\nand was thrown into a world as
\nif I was thrown into an ocean
\nbut never taught to swim.
\nI am 28 years old now and
\nI\u2019ve spent a majority of these
\npast 10 years trying to learn
\nhow to keep my head above the
\nwater, gasping my way through
\nlife.
\nI hate the system, it funnels
\nchildren from broken homes
\ninto institutions\u2014most commonly
\njails.
\nI feel I am so behind in life.
\nThere are skills that I feel I
\nshould know\u2014such as balancing
\na checkbook, opening a
\nbank account, filing taxes, loving
\nfreely, trusting others and
\nbelieving in myself.
\nWho was supposed to teach
\nme this? These places should
\nbe helping prepare children for
\ntheir future.
\nI wish I could go back in time
\nwith the information I have now
\nand advocate for myself; that
\nvulnerable little girl who only
\nwanted a place to call home.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The baggage that remains.   I had always felt that my mother did not want me. While she had several opportunities to get me back by simply providing a few clean drug tests, she was unable to do so. I tell myself that I ended up in the foster care system due to her addiction…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"staff_name":[678],"class_list":["post-11273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life","category-lifestyle","staff_name-shaylah-ohara"],"yoast_head":"\nFoster care and abandonment - City College Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11273\/campus-life\/foster-care-abandonment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Foster care and abandonment - City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The baggage that remains.   I had always felt that my mother did not want me. While she had several opportunities to get me back by simply providing a few clean drug tests, she was unable to do so. I tell myself that I ended up in the foster care system due to her addiction...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11273\/campus-life\/foster-care-abandonment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City College Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-08T19:55:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sjcctimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Escrito por\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\" SHAYLAH O\u2019HARA, GUEST WRITER\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutos\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Foster care and abandonment - City College Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11273\/campus-life\/foster-care-abandonment\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Foster care and abandonment - City College Times","og_description":"The baggage that remains.   I had always felt that my mother did not want me. While she had several opportunities to get me back by simply providing a few clean drug tests, she was unable to do so. I tell myself that I ended up in the foster care system due to her addiction...","og_url":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/11273\/campus-life\/foster-care-abandonment\/","og_site_name":"City College Times","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SJCityCollegeTimes","article_published_time":"2016-12-08T19:55:12+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sjcctimes","twitter_site":"@sjcctimes","twitter_misc":{"Escrito por":" SHAYLAH O\u2019HARA, GUEST WRITER","Tiempo de lectura":"3 minutos"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11275,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273\/revisions\/11275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11273"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sjcctimes.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=11273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}