Feel the Heat Yet?

Growing up, I didn't have the best of everything. Although, I never had to worry about where my next meal would come from or if I would have a roof over my head come nightfall. This was because my parents made sacrifices. They did everything in their power to make sure that me and my little sisters were taken care of. Sadly, many of my friends weren’t in the same situation. My community is so food insecure that breakfast and lunch was free for all students and the doors of the school left unlocked until late at night to ensure students had a place of refuge. Aside from these small acts, the support system for students was severely lacking. There was zero prep offered for the ACT and SAT, no access to tutoring, and only two counselors to advise the entire school population of over 3,000 kids. When I said I wanted to go to an Ivy League school, teachers laughed. I worked hard and fought to be successful. I pushed my boundaries and clawed at opportunities. When I got into Cornell, my counselor encouraged me to stay home and attend a community college or go to an HBCU I had gotten into. Just when it seemed like things were finally looking up for me, tragedy struck. My senior year, my dad passed away suddenly from a massive coronary malfunction. He was one of 4 family members that I had lost in the span of 3 years. This left me, my mom, and my little sisters with severe PTSD and financial issues. There was no safety net or support network in my community to pick us up when we fell. This placed a massive responsibility on my shoulders to fight everyday, tooth and nail, just to break even. 

So...why should you care about any of this? About this random sob story that I decided to unload? I’ll tell you why. You should care because there are millions of people across the U.S. who have been forced into a cycle of stratification, poverty, and misfortune just like me. Our country is lacking an equitable network of communal supports and services. People always say “Oh, Shayla you’re so strong. Not just anyone could handle the pressure like you do.” They’re right. I am strong. But I am so, so, so tired. So are the millions of Americans who just can’t seem to get a break. I’m not much of an analytical mind or a data driven person but I do know that people matter and that they are in desperate need of assistance. I mean...aren’t we all? Turn on the news, we have parents eating once a week to feed their kids. College students working two, three jobs to fund their education or support their families at home, like me. The more than 2 million kids who will face a period of poverty every year. The 33% increase in suicide rates since 1999. People are severely underserved and unhappy in their communities and widely in this world. So let me repeat and say it louder for the people in the back; OUR COUNTRY IS LACKING AN EQUITABLE NETWORK OF COMMUNAL SUPPORTS AND SERVICES! Working with the students in Youth CAN, I am reminded of how much America's youth needs support. They have massive problems at home and issues at school. They have limited outlets for creativity and using their voice. The youth need our investment!

I have heard so many people’s stories and backgrounds and it is heartbreaking that barriers to thriving could be removed simply with the implementation of comprehensive support and wrap-around services. As a proud queer woman of color from a low-income family and a first generation college student, I know what it’s like to be marginalized, discounted, and underserved. Due to the personal connection I have with youth empowerment, I am calling for a COMPLETE SYSTEMATIC UPHEAVAL of the current services in place and a reinvestment of human capital to support our disadvantaged youth and families. Data is great, but personal experience and the story of self is better. In the words of  Ronald Reagan “When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.” In order to deliberately work to understand and solve what goes wrong for our youth, I have to tell my story, and the story of so many others like me, so that our formalized power structures “feel the heat.”