Photographic Memories of 'At-Risk' Youth

Ahhh...finally a little down time this week. The summer program is over and we are ramping up for our After-School programs. No light task, but it does allow for a slight reprieve.

To allow me to procrastinate the planning I need to do for the Education Department training week and ensure I'll be working under a tight deadline for no reason, I decided to change offices. It's a bigger office with more windows and more wall space. I can get all of the papers off of the floor and organize a little better.

As with all moving jobs, it allowed me to sift through stuff, throwing away the pointless, old stuff and discovering treasures I had forgotten about long ago. Some of the treasures were photos I'd enlarged or printed on regular paper and stashed away until I could find frames or reasons to use them. Now is that time.

After a few days of cleaning, sifting, and moving furniture, I began to hang photos. I found some frames that had been donated... but others were hung simply with "tacky" directly on the wall. Once I completed the move and had all of the photos hung, I looked around and realized the framing definitely gave it a little "umph," but it wasn't the frames that I was going for when I printed the pictures. It's the meaning behind each one.

As I look around my office, I see...

a high school graduation picture

two young girls playing and grinning from ear to ear

a little boy dressed in a clown suit

friends and cousins jumbled together for a photo op

elementary girls helping each other by explaining the homework assignment

a little boy on Santa's lap

a "cool" teenager posing for a picture

boys playing bingo

a group of teenagers that are unlikely friends, but bonded because of they all live in the same housing development

a hand-drawn picture that says, "God made us equal. And his love too."

But, I also see...

a young boy who dropped out of high school, had a baby, and is now married but still has no desire to finish school

a young boy who wants to go to college now, at 19, but is struggling because he made a decision to drop out of a college class and now has to pay financial aid back before he can enroll

a couple of kids who, despite their best efforts, are quite a challenge to handle when it comes to behavior issues

a boy who never wanted to be associated as living in the "projects" and always saw himself as better than the rest of the people there

a little girl who has grown into a young teenager with college aspirations

a girl who was prostituted by her mother so she could buy drugs

a young man who was shot and killed at 21 years of age as he sat at a bus stop

a college student in her honors program who will probably finish college in 3 1/2 years

kids who now frequent the library/bookstore

a little girl who has a very loving grandfather raising her because her mother can't

Each of these pictures...and the stories behind them... remind me of why I exhaust myself at times by over-committing to projects, demanding high expectations from my staff and the kids they work with, looking at school work, accepting weekend phone calls from college students, assisting with college paperwork I know nothing about, and trying to be a good balance of love and accountability. I realize that I have been blessed with college degrees, the ability to connect with people, and resources. Though I do not believe that our works save us, I also realize that not using what I've been given is a waste of what God has provided me.

I love that I can now sit at my desk and reflect on each of these moments that I've been a part of over the years. Each of the youth in the pictures are extremely special to me.