Untitled 23

"LATINA" -- it was tatted across her neck in bold, black ink for all to see.

It sat with the rest of the tattoos that covered her body at the age of 13. A 4-foot-11 8th grader, trying so hard to prove herself to everybody and anybody and maybe most of all to her.

In high school, her father passed and now didn't she really have to fend for herself? Wasn't she alone?

But that's not true. 

She says she's grateful for her principal and school counselor at the time, who, somehow, believed she had the ability to do better for herself and encouraged her to meet that ability. 

A few years later, she got pregnant and gave birth. A few years after that, she got the tattoos removed, one-by-one.

Today, the only tattoo remaining is her son's name in small letters across her wrist. 

It's amazing-- looking at her skin now, you'd have never suspected it was once covered in ink. 

Now in her early 40's, her son is grown up and she works in schools. The hardest kids get sent to her for 1-on-1 support-- she's a master of tough love. In the first week, the latest student disrespects and curses at her endlessly.

These days, before he leaves at the end of their session, he never fails to tell her he loves her--he calls her Aunty now-- and she affirms to him that she loves him as well, as if he were her own.

He wonders aloud why his momma can never say these words to him.

It takes time, she tells him. Some parents just need more time before they're ready to say these kinds of things. Everyone is different, but just remember that at the very least she loves him and will do her best to fight for him every day. 

At that crossroad of her life, so many years ago-- how lucky she was to have had even one adult who believed in her. She's grown up in East Oakland her entire life-- she knows how different things could have turned out for her. 

If she can be that one adult who believes in a child, to help them do better for their self when others are not able to-- what a great thing that would be. 

---

We try so hard to do right for kids.

At what point will the People with Power choose to make the best decisions for kids instead of the best decisions for their selves? When will these Adults learn to set aside their Adult pride and lofty Adult ideologies to address the actual needs of children who can only wait in hopes of a better tomorrow, unsure if that tomorrow will ever come or if they will be around to greet it? 

When will we commit to serving children and our communities 100%, instead of 50%?

We try so hard to do right for kids but I wish they did not have to suffer for Adult politics and Adult selfishness.