Digital Stories: Jackie Affronte

 New Shoes to Walk In. Jackie Affronte uses her experiences to drive youth advocacy work.

I keep being told to write an article for Mockingbird. I apparently have some listen-worthy insight or something, I don't know. But I thought I might blow off some steam and write about my experience with authority figures. This is a tough topic, so I promise to keep it interesting. It all started back when I was living in my house, which is a long story, so I'll keep this part short and sweet. Basically I was living a real-life version of Matilda, without the magic powers. It was an I'm right, you're wrong and I'm big, you're little situation. I promise you, the feeling of being stuck in a situation with nothing to say for yourself, stuck listening to only everything you're doing wrong and never being told anything positive about what you're doing right, sucks. It's the memories I've chosen to block out that are the reasons I will never go back.

With that being said, I left and it has been the best decision I've ever made for my physical, emotional, and mental well being. But it's not all candy and unicorns – this is life we're talking about after all. Going from shelter to shelter, dealing with my own emotional triggers and coping with being triggered, has been quite the struggle. Although being in a shelter isn't as bad as I imagined, it's still tough to deal with at times. While I meet many adults more than willing to support me with an open mind and a beautiful heart, there are also adults that push taking advantage of their authority to the max. They target and disrespect my well-being yet are still employed to "help" young adults in my situation. But dealing with these kinds of situations only brings to my attention what is wrong with the system. Why aren't we training staff differently to prevent things like this or hiring volunteers who actually want the job to keep things balanced?

This isn't the only thing I think about of course, which is why I joined Mockingbird. There's no better way to change the system, and give my input at the same time, than through ADVOCACY work. And yes I used "caps lock" because I'm serious!