I also realized how much satisfaction I took in helping others succeed. Becoming a teacher and a facilitator in the CLIFF program, I learned how amazing it feels to be someone people trusted for advice and guidance, and to have the ability to help them. I took so much satisfaction in helping others get through what I’d been through, and it motivated me so much to see their progress. The experience even showed me how I could channel frustration and anger into positive ideas. When I looked around at all the good women who had lost their children to the system, just because they were addicted to drugs and didn’t have access to treatment, it made me absolutely enraged. But that anger quickly got me thinking about what I could do to affect that situation.
Now I have a dream I really care about. I want to help other people like me, people who are so strong-willed and stubborn that they need an extreme kick in the ass to help them overcome their addictions. I want to open the kind of facility I started to visualize when I was in prison, a place where people can get the kind of intense blend of education, discipline, and community support that will help them find the strength they have inside.
Just a couple of short years ago, I thought there was no hope for me. I was wrong. There’s never a good reason to give up. There’s always a way to turn things around. You just have to look at someone like me as proof that it’s never too late.
Acknowledgments
I want to say thank you to my family for always being there for me. My mother who showed me strength and love, my father who showed me perseverance, and that it’s never too late to change, and my brother who has always shown me loyalty and wisdom. Also my grandma and Grandpa for helping me through my hardest times. I would also like to thank my cousin Krystal for sticking by my side. You are not just family, you are a true friend. Also my sister Candace, who’s my guardian angel. Nothing would be possible without you looking over me. And, to Beth Roeser for helping me find the words to speak what was on my mind.
I’d also like to thank MTV for sticking by my side through the hardest times. And last but not least, my managers Nick and Jake and everyone at NBTV Studios. Thank you for all your help and guiding me in the right direction.
Sending love
Never Too Late Page 14
