Angela's Story of Survival, Strength, and Starting Over (Part 1)

 In this powerful first episode of a two-part series, Angela reflects on her journey through childhood trauma, navigating life in the streets, and the time she spent in juvenile detention. As a teenager searching for connection and safety, she found herself pulled into a world that made survival feel like the only option. But a near-death experience changed everything—forcing her to confront her past and begin a new path forward.

Raw, honest, and deeply moving, Angela’s story reminds us of the strength and resilience young people carry, even in the face of overwhelming odds. You won’t want to miss this one!

Warning: This episode contains discussions of topics that may be difficult for some listeners, including addiction, trauma, car accidents, family challenges, and experiences with the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Please take care while listening. 

Find helpful resources mentioned in this podcast episode.

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If you would like to ask us a question, recommend a topic, or suggest a guest, please email us at youthvoiceamplified@gmail.com.

Credits:

Producers: Brian Johnson, Gennessa Fisher, Kim Silva and Allyson Baptiste
Production Partners: Liam Silva and Kern Education Television Network, the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office
Theme Song: “Beatitude” by Mountaineer 

Transcript

Audio file

YVA June final .mp3

Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker 2

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed on youth voice amplified are those of the hosts and the guests and do not necessarily represent the official policy or position of the current county Superintendent, School office. Any content provided by our guests or of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, school organization, company, individual.

00:00:20 Speaker 2

Or anyone or anything.

00:00:22 Speaker 1

Use voice amplify covers a wide range of topics that could be upsetting to some listeners. Content warning for each episode, and links to resources can be found in this episode show now.

00:00:31 Speaker 1

For the purposes of maintaining confidentiality, names and some identifiable characteristics of our storytellers have been changed, but their voices and their stories are real.

00:00:41 Speaker 2

When young people share their stories, they can change the world. But some youth voices still go unheard. Join me, janessa Fisher.

00:00:49 Speaker 1

And me, Brian Johnson, for this youth LED monthly interview series as Young people tell their untold stories of experiences with homelessness, foster care disabilities, teen parenting and more.

00:00:59 Speaker 2

Each conversation will uncover stories of hope strength from our youth storyteller.

00:01:03 Speaker 2

We want to share the best ways that we can all support youth in similar situations as theirs. If you want to know how to do better for youth or simply just be inspired, this is your show. Every youth has a story to tell.

00:01:12

Oh.

00:01:15 Speaker 1

Are you ready to listen?

00:01:19 Speaker 2

Hey everyone and welcome to youth voice amplified in the podcast where everyone has heard and every voice matters. I'm your host.

00:01:24 Speaker 1

Janessa and I'm Brian today we welcome our youth storyteller Angela, who will share obstacles and challenges she experienced while growing up our affecting her mentality and how she continues to keep pushing forward.

00:01:35 Speaker 2

She also talks about the importance of protecting one's space and the process of healing, which is critical when it comes to overcoming adversity. Her story is a perfect example of sharing hope, strength and resilience. Now, please enjoy our conversation with Angela.

00:01:47 Speaker 1

I'm excited to share our guests with you guys and I think you'll love this episode just.

00:01:51 Speaker 1

As much as we did.

00:01:56

What?

00:02:00 Speaker 2

So.

00:02:00 Speaker 2

First and foremost, Angela, welcome to youth Voice Amplified podcast. We are so happy to have you on.

00:02:05 Speaker 3

Hi I'm happy to be here.

00:02:07 Speaker 1

I'd like to welcome you to the show as well, so Janessa has an ice breaker question for you. I'm gonna.

00:02:11 Speaker 2

Let her get the ice breaker going. So before we get started asking you questions about who you are and digging really deep into who you are, essentially we like to give an audience a kind of feel of who you are. But so our icebreaker question today is if you were in the Olympics, which sport would you choose to participate in?

00:02:28 Speaker 3

I would choose.

00:02:30 Speaker 3

I think I will. I ran when I was younger and I liked it and I was pretty fast. And then I think I I kind of just didn't move forward with it. So if I got to pick a sport it.

00:02:40 Speaker 2

Would be track. This is a pretty basic one. That's a pretty.

00:02:44 Speaker 3

Good one like I did. I did it for a little bit when I was in like 7th and 6th grade.

00:02:50 Speaker 3

But.

00:02:50 Speaker 3

This I don't know. It was. They didn't do like a lot of hands on, you know, you're just running. I don't know. I like to.

00:02:57 Speaker 1

Be involved. I would definitely do basketball. I know I get my blood cake, but that would be kind of cool.

00:03:02 Speaker 2

To do I love water, so I'm going to do swimming I anytime, even though I'm horrible at swimming, horrible at swimming, I barely learned how. When I got into college.

00:03:06 Speaker 1

Swimmer.

00:03:10 Speaker 2

But I love to be in any type of water so.

00:03:14 Speaker 1

I would definitely die because I can't swim. I.

00:03:16 Speaker 2

Would die brain cannot.

00:03:17 Speaker 1

Swim now the world knows. All right? We also like to ask our guests, what does your voice mean to?

00:03:25 Speaker 3

I don't know like what you go through because some of us go through stuff and we think like nobody else goes through it. So it's good to to not be embarrassed or ashamed of what you go through because it could help somebody because somebody else could go through the same thing and feel alone. But hearing that someone else went through it would inspire them.

00:03:46 Speaker 2

All right.

00:03:46 Speaker 1

Can you talk about your childhood and growing up?

00:03:50 Speaker 3

OK, my dad, I'm his only kid and he didn't have me till he was 47 years old.

00:03:58 Speaker 3

And my mom, she has five kids altogether. But at this time, I was her second child.

00:04:05 Speaker 3

I.

00:04:07 Speaker 3

My mom was out of the picture for a long time growing up like this.

00:04:13 Speaker 3

4/5.

00:04:15 Speaker 3

6-7 like she was, she wasn't really there like I would hear. I would see her like once a month but.

00:04:24 Speaker 3

She was out. She had her own addiction, so she dealt with life her own way. And I.

00:04:32 Speaker 3

So like.

00:04:33 Speaker 3

11 years old. She came into my life like permanently. She ended up moving in with my dad and me and a friend to take care of the friend because.

00:04:46 Speaker 3

The friend ended up being handicapped, so she was in my life, but she was still kind of in her same thing. So like she was there and it helped like her being there. But as a mother figure.

00:05:01 Speaker 3

I it wasn't really there, but like I said it, it was easier having her there than like when she wasn't there because I didn't know.

00:05:09 Speaker 3

What womanhood or nothing about a woman was like because I was raised by my father and.

00:05:16 Speaker 3

He was, man, he was older, so he kind of just raised me on a a a man mindset and how he grew up. And that's really all he knew. It wasn't like he was doing something wrong. It was just all he knew at the age he.

00:05:29 Speaker 3

Was.

00:05:30 Speaker 3

So that was.

00:05:31 Speaker 3

Younger and then I hit like 12 and I started.

00:05:36 Speaker 3

Rapping with my dad. I would go to the studio with him and.

00:05:41 Speaker 3

He he thought that was the coolest thing ever. Like I'll name after a rapper. So I just I have to like, I don't know. I felt like kind of like, like Tupac. Like when I was younger, I I was in the studio when my dad and it was it was fun like I.

00:06:01 Speaker 3

I was already. I already had the mindset, like I wasn't really like a kid. Like I enjoyed Barbies a little bit, but I.

00:06:11 Speaker 3

I wanted to know more about life. Like I wanted to understand like, why?

00:06:16 Speaker 3

The world was the way it was, even though I was young, like I knew a lot of things weren't normal like I knew.

00:06:24 Speaker 3

Like people being hurt, kids being hurt like the world.

00:06:29 Speaker 3

The homeless, the drug addictions like I know it wasn't normal. So like when I was younger, I would start like looking up questions I had sometimes questions I had towards my parents, but I couldn't ask them. So I. So I asked Google and I kind of just like started learning through the Internet, learning at school a little bit.

00:06:41

Hey.

00:06:49 Speaker 3

Then 1313 hit and I I was in the streets. That's all I knew. My parents weren't in the position to take care of me, so I was bouncing from friend to friend house to house. I started going to juvenile hall and that it started becoming home like at Juvenile hall. I was. I was loved.

00:07:09 Speaker 3

Like like I mattered. And it wasn't like I didn't matter to my parents, but they weren't in the position to to love me. How I how I deserve to be loved. So. So I kept so I after the.

00:07:21 Speaker 3

First time and.

00:07:21 Speaker 3

Doing the hall, I went back and.

00:07:25 Speaker 3

I went back and I went back and I kept going back and it was like.

00:07:30 Speaker 3

I would always be like I'm never coming back like I would tell the staff there, but because I didn't, I didn't understand it. I just now that I'm older like I understand and I see what it was, it was structure, it was love. It was I, I mattered to somebody and.

00:07:47 Speaker 3

And like it was a, it was a routine. We ate breakfast at the same time. Together we worked out together. We went to school together, so everything was like something I never knew of. Like my parents were there. But like I said, they weren't in the right position. So it was like it was a lonely feeling. So, like and juvenile.

00:08:07 Speaker 3

And being around other people that were like me, I felt like.

00:08:12 Speaker 3

Like I wasn't alone. And then I just kept going to juvenile hall was in and out of juvenile hall on drugs. I I started doing ******** drugs at 12 years old and.

00:08:27 Speaker 3

And that's kind of all I knew, like I was just, I was running.

00:08:32 Speaker 3

From reality I I know my mom and dad weren't right, but I kind of didn't know. Like of other I didn't know of a way out. I didn't know there was a way out. Like all I seen was what I seen. So.

00:08:46 Speaker 3

I kind of just.

00:08:48 Speaker 3

Run around with older people. Did the drugs went in and out of juvenile hall?

00:08:55 Speaker 3

Years passed by. I had this PO. I had the same PO from 13 to 17 and she was like a mother to me. She she added me on social media. She pulled up to the events. I would try to go to if it was after curfew, like I don't even know how she knew, but.

00:09:15 Speaker 3

She loved me and she she sees that the name me when I was young, that I never seen in myself and.

00:09:23 Speaker 3

16 came across and.

00:09:27 Speaker 3

Out of Xanax addiction? I was.

00:09:30 Speaker 3

Smoking meth and popping Xanax I was just I was numbing my pain. I didn't know how else to cope with it, but I didn't want to hate the world. I didn't want to be mean to people. And like when I was on that, when I.

00:09:44 Speaker 3

Was on drugs, I.

00:09:47 Speaker 3

I didn't feel nothing like I was.

00:09:50 Speaker 3

I don't know. I was. I was numb. Nothing hurt. Like, even things that I said that hurt me at this age out of my I didn't. It didn't feel like pain then so.

00:10:00 Speaker 3

16 I was on.

00:10:02 Speaker 3

6 Xanax and I I got into a car accident on Laredo and 99. I was coming southbound. I just came off the Laredo exit.

00:10:16 Speaker 3

And I was going like 89 miles an hour and I I nodded out. I fell asleep and.

00:10:24 Speaker 3

A car I. I was going so fast. I I tipped the back of a car and.

00:10:33 Speaker 3

My car flipped. I I hit the car so hard. Like I I didn't do. No, really. Too much damage to their car, but that caused me to flip onto the dirt way right there.

00:10:44 Speaker 3

And I was ejected from the vehicle. I I ended up breaking both vertebrates, I.

00:10:53 Speaker 3

Cracked my spine. I my left ear was hanging off I.

00:11:01 Speaker 3

I went through it and I I was put into a brain coma when.

00:11:07 Speaker 3

Like a week after I was in the hospital, because when I first got to the hospital they thought I was a 23 year old woman because that's his car I was driving. So that's what they had me labeled under. But my parents, they were looking for me. They did. I was supposed to pick up my niece that day and I didn't make it, so people were worried and they were wondering where I was.

00:11:28 Speaker 3

And in ways I am.

00:11:32 Speaker 3

So I was in the coma.

00:11:35 Speaker 3

And the doctors told my parents, you know, like.

00:11:40 Speaker 3

We might have to pull the plug. We we don't know. Like if we can really save her like she. She has a lot of serious injuries right now and and if she lives through this, she's going to be a vegetable. She she won't be able to take care of herself.

00:11:57 Speaker 3

She'll need somebody take care of her her whole life. And my parents didn't pull the plug. They believed.

00:12:05 Speaker 3

They believed in God and they knew that.

00:12:09 Speaker 3

They felt like this is what a pastor came in and said when I was in a coma, he told my parents. Get out of this hospital room and he he put his hands over me and he prayed something. I don't know. I was in a coma.

00:12:25 Speaker 3

But.

00:12:26 Speaker 3

When he got done praying, he walked out and he told my parents.

00:12:31 Speaker 3

Don't bother her right now.

00:12:33 Speaker 3

She's fighting. You said your daughter would fight a lot when she was younger. Right now she's fighting and she doesn't need to be bothered like, because when my parents would come to the hospital.

00:12:44 Speaker 3

Room.

00:12:46 Speaker 3

My my blood.

00:12:50 Speaker 3

My blood pressure would like rise and my heartbeat would rise. So so it wasn't good for me with the position I was in, so I.

00:13:01 Speaker 3

I got through those little days in the coma. I was in a coma for like 3 weeks. I got out of the coma. I was on the oxygen tank. They were feeding me through this tube.

00:13:15 Speaker 3

I was waking up then I was.

00:13:19 Speaker 3

I was awake, so I was I was feeling it then I was just. I was confused. I didn't know what happened. I just.

00:13:27 Speaker 3

I know I'd messed up.

00:13:30 Speaker 3

And that's like.

00:13:31 Speaker 3

That's how I felt and I started.

00:13:35 Speaker 3

Just I went to the shower for the first time by myself because they would wipe me down in the hospital bed. I didn't shower like the first month and a half. I was in the hospital. They would just wipe me down and shower me in the bed in the bed.

00:13:50 Speaker 3

I went to the shower with the with the Walker and my mom's help.

00:13:56 Speaker 3

I looked in the mirror and I.

00:14:00 Speaker 3

I see my hair was gone. All my hair was gone and when I got into my accident I had a bright bright.

00:14:08 Speaker 3

Bright pink hair. I love my hair. I dyed my hair since I was like 12 years old. So I looked in the mirror and I was just.

00:14:22 Speaker 3

I was mad. I was hurt.

00:14:27 Speaker 3

I didn't feel normal. I.

00:14:31 Speaker 3

I just. I didn't know how to feel. I just.

00:14:36 Speaker 3

I knew that I had a long rotor in front of me. That's the only thing I could feel in. I showered.

00:14:44 Speaker 3

It hit me then like I got out the shower, I went to bed and and asked my mom like.

00:14:52 Speaker 3

Like what happened to me like.

00:14:54 Speaker 3

What did I do?

00:14:57 Speaker 3

My mom explained to me.

00:14:59 Speaker 3

What had happened and?

00:15:04 Speaker 3

And I didn't understand it like.

00:15:06 Speaker 3

I was like, what do you mean? Like I crashed? I was like, like, what do you mean? And she was, like, trying to explain to me.

00:15:15 Speaker 3

Everything happened and I like I was.

00:15:20 Speaker 3

My brain level when I got out the coma was at a a first grade level so I.

00:15:25

Hmm.

00:15:27 Speaker 3

I don't think in first grade I would really know like what an accident was unless I've seen it. So I I still didn't get it like I was not comprehending.

00:15:38 Speaker 3

What had happened? And weeks went by. Doctors were coming in.

00:15:45 Speaker 3

People were talking to me. It was feeling real. I was like, man, like, I messed up. I was like.

00:15:55 Speaker 3

Like this time around I really didn't messed up and I was supposed to be in the hospital until.

00:16:05 Speaker 3

2023.

00:16:08 Speaker 3

I got out the hospital in 2020.

00:16:11 Speaker 3

I healed like fast, faster than the doctors even thought I could. Faster than people that went to school for years, trained to do that. Then they even knew I healed and I.

00:16:25 Speaker 3

I left the hospital and.

00:16:28 Speaker 3

As when life started getting real, I came out. I was in the streets.

00:16:34 Speaker 3

Parents are still the same.

00:16:36 Speaker 3

Life was still the same. I just needed somebody now like.

00:16:41 Speaker 3

Like I wasn't able to take care of myself. That's what I felt so.

00:16:46 Speaker 3

So I went back to drugs. I was confused. I didn't know like.

00:16:52 Speaker 3

What really had happened in?

00:16:55 Speaker 3

I got pulled over while I was even driving. I don't know. They got pulled over and.

00:17:03 Speaker 3

And there was somebody in the car with me that had a weapon. And I went right back to juvenile hall. My hair was still short. Like I literally was not even fully healed. I I went right back, though. And this time around.

00:17:19 Speaker 3

I talking to the same counselors that I've talked to me since I was 13 years old and.

00:17:27 Speaker 3

Mr. Cisco and Miss Cici this time around it like it started making sense. Like I love my parents, but I had to.

00:17:38 Speaker 3

I don't love me.

00:17:40 Speaker 3

Like I needed to love them, but they didn't love me enough, so it now that I'm getting older, it's on me to love myself how I want to be loved is not on me to rely on people to love me, right? It's not on me to.

00:17:56 Speaker 3

Blame people for how they treat me on how I act, so I just kind of.

00:18:02 Speaker 3

I got into mean mode. I got really selfish. I I did that little time I was supposed to be in there nine months. I only did.

00:18:11 Speaker 3

Three months because I had a surgery in San Francisco. So I got out early, went to San Francisco.

00:18:18 Speaker 3

And.

00:18:20 Speaker 3

Then I just.

00:18:23 Speaker 3

I felt different. I came out this time.

00:18:27 Speaker 3

I say, well, my mom, my dad and.

00:18:33 Speaker 3

I don't want to be there like I had a PO, so I I'll talk to my PO like please like.

00:18:42 Speaker 3

Like I need a home like I I I literally I need to be somewhere that's home like I need to have. I need someone to like be around that I can be a kid and just tell me like you know.

00:18:59 Speaker 3

Your parents have custody of you, so I can't really do much. There's not a lot for me to do. And then.

00:19:06 Speaker 3

Next week into an argument my mother and she told me that I promise you, you're going to be in jail for your 18th birthday. I was fighting with her. I was being crazy, you know, and that's what she told.

00:19:19 Speaker 3

So I I call my field. I was crying and I was like please. Like I was explaining to her. And she just told me no, like, talk to me for a little bit. I just left my house that day. My own house, which cause of my accident house donated a trailer. So that's where we all lived. But I left.

00:19:40 Speaker 3

My appeal said that's what what was best for me.

00:19:43 Speaker 3

Then the next week.

00:19:45 Speaker 3

They received the eviction notice on the on our trailer, so I I remember that's when my PO told me like I just needed to be. I needed to be homeless to to get more help because like, it wasn't enough to just say my parents were loving me the way they were because the government gave them custody. So there really was nothing.

00:20:06 Speaker 3

That could be done and UM.

00:20:09 Speaker 3

I gave my PO the eviction notice and she helped me up with the dream.

00:20:13 Speaker 3

Dinner.

00:20:15 Speaker 2

So for those who don't know, can you do a short blurb on what the Dream Center is and what Tay is?

00:20:20 Speaker 3

Yes, OK. The Dream Center is a foster program for, I mean a program for foster kids or kids that are on the streets, kids that have been out of their parents custody.

00:20:36 Speaker 3

The Dream Center, they helped me.

00:20:39 Speaker 3

Get my own place by the age of 18, the Dream Center helped me have a home because like before, you get your apartment, they send you to a low barrier. So I I stayed with some other people, which once again was like there was rules there. People couldn't stay there.

00:20:59 Speaker 3

You have visitors, but no one could like stay the night. You couldn't do things in that house, you know. There was. There was rules. So like, once again it was. It was like I mattered. So I went through the low barrier. I was there for like 6 months. And then.

00:21:15 Speaker 3

My income started increasing and I was able to get my place. So now I have my own place and somebody from the Dream Center comes out once a month checks on like my smoke alarms my.

00:21:30 Speaker 3

Light. Make sure everything's good for my safety and the Dream Center gives you clothes. If you don't have clothes, they.

00:21:39 Speaker 3

Food. If you don't have food even after like, we get our apartment, we can go and get food at anytime. We need food. There's always emergency food and there is printer access there. They have somebody from Bakersfield College that comes out. So you can even.

00:21:56 Speaker 3

Be trying to get some food cause you're starving and end up finding a career like for real and.

00:22:05 Speaker 3

Junger. Little like kind of, does everything like a like a family. Should you get food there, you could shower there. If you haven't over to shower someone to talk to.

00:22:18 Speaker 3

Teach you how to cook. They kind of like, I guess, like everything and it's and it's good for us kids like especially like for us foster kids to have or just any kid that's not loved correctly to just know, you know, there's resources. There's somebody here, there is some.

00:22:35 Speaker 3

Nobody that cares. Like I said, you don't have clothes, you need food, or if you even need to shower, like I know some friends that don't even let you shower at their house. So like, something like that is very important. And I know it. It helps us.

00:22:51 Speaker 2

So it's it's kind of like the family that you never had, but in the sense of like assistance program. Yeah. So thank you.

00:22:59 Speaker 3

I started seeing counselors from the Tay team, so I started like healing. Like, really, like my outside health. I was OK already. Like I could walk. I can move. I could drive myself. I was OK. But inside, like I had pain, I didn't know like.

00:23:17 Speaker 3

How to do it? Because I believe in God and that's a commandment to honor my mother and my father. So I was confused on like.

00:23:29 Speaker 3

I was just confused. I didn't. I didn't understand like how to move how I wanted to move in life, how to follow rules, but how to protect myself. Also, counseling helped me heal fully and I was able to start putting myself first.

00:23:45 Speaker 3

And I I've been working with.

00:23:50 Speaker 3

KC SOS since I was 17, I was going to black in and I did a jobs plus program.

00:23:57 Speaker 3

I started learning like work ethics, how how the work field was. I was 17 so like to learn like how people are supposed to like treat you compared to what like social media or the Internet shows us like about work, things like that. That class taught me a lot. It taught me like.

00:24:17 Speaker 3

More than just work, it taught me like how people should value me, how people should treat me, how I should treat people regard.

00:24:24 Speaker 3

Is.

00:24:26 Speaker 3

What I'm going through, regardless what's going on?

00:24:29

Yeah.

00:24:29 Speaker 1

You also mentioned mentioned sorry Blatin what is blatin.

00:24:33 Speaker 3

Blaton Academy. It's not a school no more. Now it is 30 4th St. Well, actually, I think.

00:24:42 Speaker 3

It is so.

00:24:42 Speaker 3

OK. But anyways, 34th St. moved to Bryan but.

00:24:47 Speaker 3

Brian is a probation school. It is a school for kids that are on probation or kicked out of normal school doing welcome back. You know, a lot of a lot of us know that as the principal says, you know, they tell our parents, get this person out of there. You can come back. So when you get expelled or kicked out of school.

00:25:07 Speaker 3

You gotta buy in.

00:25:09 Speaker 1

OK. So kind of like continuing school when they get kicked out of that their district, they go straight to the Academy school pretty much.

00:25:15 Speaker 3

Yes.

00:25:17 Speaker 3

Everybody be going through stuff, so I.

00:25:20 Speaker 3

I started doing that program and then I.

00:25:23 Speaker 3

I got hired on when I was 18, so I have my boss and he.

00:25:32 Speaker 3

He genuinely like he genuinely loves me.

00:25:36 Speaker 3

And I like started seeing that when I was working like there was days I couldn't get to work. He made it happen. There was days I didn't have food.

00:25:45 Speaker 3

Made it happen. There was like days I couldn't come to work because of.

00:25:50 Speaker 3

Outside problems and you know how bosses their job, we're just we're supposed to be employees to them. But he just let me be home. He was like, you know what? Hell up like. Take care of it. So I started like, I started looking at the world different. I didn't look at the world the same.

00:26:07 Speaker 3

Like I looked at my whole life, I started looking like, you know, there's better like.

00:26:15 Speaker 3

Misery loves company and when you want more.

00:26:20 Speaker 3

People are not going to understand that all the time. People aren't going to.

00:26:25 Speaker 3

Get it? Manipulation is its finest in this world right now, and I think especially for us kids that.

00:26:33 Speaker 3

Are not loved.

00:26:34 Speaker 3

Correctly, like our whole life coming from like the.

00:26:39 Speaker 3

Foster system.

00:26:42 Speaker 3

We don't know what Love's real. We don't know what to believe. It's like it's a guard. We have a our whole life towards everybody and like.

00:26:50 Speaker 3

Having a boss that like genuinely cared about my well-being, it made me like start being able to to work on myself because my job.

00:27:01 Speaker 3

It's not a lot, I just really like cleaning up, so I.

00:27:05 Speaker 3

So I didn't have.

00:27:06 Speaker 3

To stress about work, and I had to worry. I was able to go to work but catch up on my on my own self so.

00:27:15 Speaker 3

Whole youth. I just kind of.

00:27:18 Speaker 3

Then my bad part I got right.

00:27:23 Speaker 3

My jobs plus program to help me like get out the gutter. My first check. They laughed at me because I didn't cash her for two months. My check was like 1000 and 1200 like like $1200.

00:27:38 Speaker 3

But I held on to it. I didn't know what a lot of money was like, so I liked it. So it's things like that that I kind of.

00:27:46 Speaker 3

It healed me like to have a team to have somebody that.

00:27:50 Speaker 3

Only cares for you and.

00:27:53 Speaker 3

They don't want nothing for it from you. They don't.

00:27:57 Speaker 3

Has nothing too much from you because everybody got to do stuff, you know we can't just live free in this world, so.

00:28:05 Speaker 3

Kind of just childhood was rough, but.

00:28:09 Speaker 3

Where I'm at today and it's better and I love it and I think like if I didn't go through all that, I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't be.

00:28:19 Speaker 3

In this podcast, I wouldn't have so much.

00:28:22 Speaker 3

Like drive in me to to speak, to be a voice, to make my story heard. Because I'm not embarrassed of it. It hurt. Some of it sounds like.

00:28:34 Speaker 3

Traumatizing, but it's like.

00:28:37 Speaker 3

I got through it and I made it. And I I'm young, I have a lot of years.

00:28:42 Speaker 3

Ahead of me.

00:28:43 Speaker 3

And I I'm I'm ready to see what else.

00:28:46 Speaker 3

Is in store.

00:28:47 Speaker 2

Well, first and foremost, thank you for sharing your story. That was really powerful and I can hear your emotion in your voice when you tell it and how you're still healing from it. But going on to that healing journey, I feel a lot of our listeners have problems with their parents like that. So how is your perception of your parents?

00:29:04 Speaker 2

Change since you've worked on your healing journey emotionally.

00:29:07 Speaker 3

This healing journey.

00:29:11 Speaker 1

And that's where we'll leave Angela for now. Right in the heart of her powerful story of survival and strength. If Part 1 moved you make sure to join us next month for Part 2, where Angela takes us even deeper. She shares what healing really looks like from the inside out. The work it takes to rebuild, to reclaim your voice and to keep going even when it's hard. She also speaks directly to adults who support youth.

00:29:32 Speaker 1

Like her, with honesty, wisdom and a challenge that will stay with you. Trust me, you don't want to miss it.

00:29:42 Speaker 2

Well, that's it for this episode of Youth Voice amplified. If you enjoy what you heard and want to support the show, please take a moment to leave us a positive review on your favorite podcast player. It will help us spread awareness of the podcast and.

00:29:53 Speaker 2

Find.

00:29:53 Speaker 1

New listeners and if you're looking for our show notes or recommended resources for any of our episodes, please visit our website at WWW.

00:30:01 Speaker 1

Dot current.org/Y V8 if you have any questions, comments or concerns or would like to recommend a topic or guess you could e-mail us at youthvoiceamplified@gmail.com.

00:30:10 Speaker 2

Join us for our next episode when Brian and I sit down with our next youth storyteller. Thanks for listening and see you next time.

00:30:16 Speaker 1

And we're out of here.

00:30:21 Speaker 4

Youth voice amplified is a youth LED project at the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office. Created, produced and hosted by Janessa Fisher and Brian Johnson with writing, research, and additional production support by Kim Silva, Allison Baptist, and the current educational television network.

00:30:39 Speaker 4

Major funding for the youth Voice Amplified Podcast is provided by the student achievement and Support Division of the California Department of Education through the Homeless Innovative Program Grant.

00:30:49 Speaker 4

Thanks for listening.