TERESA OPENS UP

One of the aspects of my job with working with the children is taking in so much…I manage one of the houses. Everyday you hear and you see scars and stories and some of the most horrific things that happen to the most innocent children...youngest four or five years old. You cannot release that because you have to be the strong part of their life...you have to be their backbone. I think after a while it wore on me and it takes up your whole life it changes everything. Because you realize there is so much out there that should not be happening…even in a small town where I am from there is so much…I can’t imagine in the whole world. Why does it happen...why does someone let that happen?

The state of mind that it puts me in is very drained and very angry and it is kind of difficult to explain but it puts you in this dark part of living because you see it all and you hear it all and it is almost like you’re there… even though it didn’t happen to you…and it is hard to kind of climb out of that …and it’s also hard to see what happens everyday…all the futile things that people do of having spent all this money to buy an SUV bigger then their neighbor…and I just …it’s hard for me to mainstream into society…dealing with all that.

I don’t know how it is going to end. Hopefully people will see that that is not the way. There are so many other people out there and other children who don’t have anything...and they are still experiencing the joy of life.

I think it is a mistake to buy so many things because there are people all over the world that cannot even eat. I don’t think you need 4 cars when people can’t eat. The way I live my life…I try to live minimally so other people can maybe have more. It’s not easy…it is also a battle. I also like buying new clothes...but...

Having grown up…adolescence can be cruel. I grew up in the richer part of the Tampa Bay area…it was my mom raising us and we didn’t have as much...and I think people out of their own insecurities…because I was different...they thought it would be ok to put that down. But I don’t think I am any less then anyone else so it’s ok…(wow) I can’t believe I said that. Man I just opened up!