Real Stories From Real Bridge Youth.
Richard
I have seen a lot of tragedy in my lifetime. My mother died of cancer when I was five years old. When I was 12, my best friend and I were walking home one day and were stuck in the middle of a shoot out; my friend was shot. He died on the spot. By the time I was 18 years old, I had already attended the funerals of four close friends due to street violence.
I wanted a better life for myself so I studied hard. I made it to my last year in high school. I was on the varsity football team, and I had a sports scholarship to U-Mass Boston. But then my father and I were evicted from our apartment. We made it by going from place to place. One day my father was complaining about pain in his chest so I took him to the hospital and found out he had had a heart attack. He was forced to retire and I had to leave work to take care of him.
With no job and no income, my whole world seemed to collapse on me. I was sleeping in shelters, cars, and hallways; I thought that I was going die in the dead middle of winter. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I found Bridge.
When I was staying at Pine Street Inn, a counselor there said that Bridge could help me out. I met with an in-house counselor at Bridge and moved into the Transitional Living Program, which gave me a place to rest my head and change my life. With a stable place to live, I could finally secure a job and save a good amount of money. I could finally focus on myself.
I have accomplished so much in this year-and-a-half period. One of my top accomplishments was receiving my GED by studying at Bridge. Last month, I earned my computer certificate at Bridge and successfully completed an internship. Now I'm working part-time and I'm busy looking for a full-time job. I have graduated from the Transitional Living Program to the Bridge Cooperative Apartments where I'm learning how to run my own apartment. Now the sky is the limit for me. I would like to own my own record company and do audio production. Anything is possible for me.
My mother told me before she passed away, "You can be anything you want to be. Never let anybody say you can't. As long as you work hard for it you can achieve any goals you set." I will carry those words in my heart till the day I die. I am proud that I have accomplished so much in a year-and-a-half. I have other goals to reach, but I will take what I have gained from Bridge to build myself a successful future.
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Maria
I was born in Puerto Rico. My parents divorced when I was 2, and I never heard from my father again. My mother re-married when I was 5. My stepfather was very good to us. I grew up with good family values. I did well in school, had a lot of friends, and was always the teacher's pet.
When I was 12, we moved to the United States, and that's when trouble started for me. It was tough adjusting to a lot of things here. Drugs were sold right outside my apartment. I didn't like school, and I had a hard time finding friends. Then my mother started using cocaine and became addicted. After that, everything just went downhill. The house was dirty; sometimes there was no food on the table. Mom just stopped caring.
I felt my family wasn't giving me love, so I looked for it elsewhere. At 14, I got myself involved with what I thought was my first love. I was so blind that I didn't care that he was violent and mentally abusive to me. I ended up dropping out of school after being held back twice in the 9th grade. I ran away a couple of times, going to live with friends, moving from house to house. I started partying, drinking, and smoking, trying to make my problems go away.
Things got so bad that I tried to jump into traffic and kill myself. I ended up in a psychiatric hospital, and began to get help. Deep down inside I had goals for myself, and dreams to accomplish. A hospital social worker referred me to Bridge. I began seeing a counselor there. I was desperate. I asked Bridge for help to get a place to live. That's when I found out about their residential program for kids like me.
I remember my first day at the program I was so scared, but everyone made me feel welcomed and the staff were patient with me. They helped me understand so many things, like why I was so angry. They helped me stop using drugs, and today I am two and a half years sober. I lived in the Bridge Transitional Living Program for nine months, and then I moved over to the Cooperative Apartments where I have the opportunity to be more independent.
Today, I hold my head up high. I have paid off all my debts and have earned my GED. I now have a full time job. Most days I'm the happy person I was as a child. Without Bridge, I don't know what I would have done.
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Nyla
I was born in England and moved to the United States when I was six years old. My parents were getting divorced, and my mother and I came to the States, while my father stayed behind. I remember feeling angry and confused at my parents for putting an ocean between them.
I had a mild case of dyslexia, so I had to work twice as hard in school. I remember feeling different from some of the other kids, but I knew that I was just as smart. In 8th grade I found cigarettes. It wasn't long after that when I got into "the in crowd." I remember a Bridge streetworker named Kate used to come over and talk to me in Harvard Square, but I never let her know what was really going on with me.
At 13 I got suspended for possession of drugs. At 16 I was asked to leave school permanently. I continued to use drugs. I was bouncing around between a friend's house and my mother's. I didn't like who I was. I was lying, stealing, and becoming more self-destructive. Then I learned I was 8 weeks pregnant. I stopped all drugs and alcohol. I was scared. I had no place to live. I had no life to bring a child into.
A friend of my mother's had heard about Bridge and thought that I should check it out. I moved into Bridge, and two weeks later I went into premature labor and gave birth to a beautiful three-pound baby girl.
The staff made the transition from hospital to the Bridge Single Parent House and to motherhood so much easier than I could have ever expected. They taught me the importance of a daily routine for my daughter, and helped me with time management. I learned what to expect as she began to grow and change. I enrolled in Bunker Hill College, and began working in a day care center.
I learned early in life that if I worked hard, I could reap the rewards. Today, I'm over four years sober. I live in my own apartment in Belmont with my daughter. I'm in my third year working full-time as a pre-school teacher. But the most important changes are inside me. Today I have my self-respect back. I found a strength in me that I was never sure was there. And when I put my daughter to bed each night, I know I am the good mother I always felt I could be. Bridge has helped me in so many ways.
The names of these clients have been changed to protect their privacy.
