Part of what amazes me about foster youth is our ability to survive and love despite the never-ending hardships that follow us. What amazes me even more is our ability to know and believe love exists, even though most foster youth — including myself — never received enough love growing up. It is this resilience that sets us apart from all other communities — far from a negligible quality, it amounts to one of our greatest strengths.
If you had asked me what love was when I was 13 years old and had just entered the system, I probably couldn’t have answered you. My five years and countless placements in the child welfare system did not help, but rather hindered my ability to define, recognize and understand love. I guess what I learned more than anything is what love wasn’t.
By the time I was 18, I had learned with absolute certainty that love wasn’t manipulative, true love couldn’t — and shouldn’t — take advantage of you, and love had nothing to do with money. These are truths I wished more foster parents were aware of and abided by, because the result would be far fewer and significantly happier placements for foster youth everywhere.
[For more on this story by Anna Judson, go to https://chronicleofsocialchang...judson-love-is/32169]
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