My Life, Your Story: Representing the United States

The My Life, Your Story program is a Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) initiative through its Office of Reentry Services. The program highlights the transformation of DJJ youth and grants them a conduit to reach other youthful offenders and at-risk teens. The following from a DJJ youth illuminates various nuances of wisdom and grants other opportunities to learn from these lessons. 

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MY LIFE YOUR STORY: REPRESENTING THE UNITED STATES

I would like to thank everyone who has made it possible to wear this uniform (of the Marines) and the Muscogee ETC.

My story consists of Before, During, and After events.

My problematic issue started at the age of 12 and progressively got better as the years went by, but I was conducting myself still in a manner that was unacceptable. 

I dropped out of school.

I was working but it wasn't anything major.

At the age of 16, I lost who I was as a person. I started doing drugs and hanging out with the wrong crowd testing the limits of the law.

And, I finally got caught up. I was arrested and went to jail for 36 months. In jail, I was very violent and assaulted other people.

I was at the point of my life where my mindset was "I wasn't doing any better, but I was thinking that it could be worse. I could have done worse."

And so, I got the opportunity to start school again.

At first, I didn't think that they would have let me and I remember my mom telling me that there was a requirement and such to go to this school and I was brushing my shoulder "no", it's not going to happen because I was told this.

No school in Georgia would accept me.

However, I sat down and had a meeting with the school principal at the time. They told me that I could go to school, but that "if I messed up, I would be out (of the school)".

I remember thinking that I am going to mess this up...and I did!

Multiple times.

But, they still kept me in school.

And, I had six credits that I had to finish. Half the work was finished in a span of three weeks.

During this time, I had my sociology credit due, one financial literacy credit, and a mathematics credit due.

This was during Christmas time.

I remember we as a class were doing a competition to determine who would decorate the best Christmas tree. The other team had to decorate using the Grinch (theme) and our team would decorate the tree in a traditional manner. 

Our team lost but I still remember that day strongly. During the day, I kept hearing my name. Award after award for my credit completions and for being Student of the Month. 

For the first time, I felt I was being recognized and how great that felt.

This motivated me to finish school shortly after that. I finally had my diploma and, not only that, I had graduated before my class at the age of 17. 

Where I once lacked a school, I had now finished it.

After I graduated, I still had some (internal) tendencies, but I never acted out on them again.

A few months later, I decided on what to do with my life so I chose the hardest branch of the United States military. I'm a lance corporal of the Marine Corps and soon be promoted to corporal. 

If I wasn't afforded the opportunity to finish school or have someone like the DJJ staff supporting me, I wouldn't be able to proudly represent the United States.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that was presented to me.

Sincerely,

Former DJJ Youth

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Additional Youth Stories:

My Story Your Life: Dedicated to Starting Over