I was particularly intrigued by some of these speakers because of their nontraditional paths and the advice they gave to community college students, who may also be taking the less-beaten path toward achievement and success. One piece of advice offered by one of the speakers was, “Be yourself.” The other speakers also echoed this sentiment and upheld the view that if you always follow your interests and be true to yourself, you will get to where you want to go.

Hearing people who had achieved their dreams say this gave me confidence that I too can do this, and I wanted to relay this piece of wisdom for you. As a youth who may have struggled with several different problems growing up, from living on the streets to coming out as a homosexual to suffering abuse at the hands of your caretakers, you may be wondering how you can succeed. With so many strikes against you, how can you pull yourself through it and give yourself hope?

The answer is a lot simpler than it seems, be yourself. Find your own unique voice and talents, and figure out how to use them, because you have them. Share your story. You don’t need to feel like your past is a problem. That you overcame it, or that you are overcoming it, is actually an inspiration to others. Sharing your pain can help others to feel less alone. Figure out how to make your pain work for you and for other people and find others who believe in you.

It may sound like I think this is easier than it actually is to do this. Bearing your wounds in public for everyone to see is terrifying. I am not even ready to do it. Being yourself, being authentic, is a struggle. You don’t want to seem like you are putting your burdens out there for sympathy. You want to show that it is possible to move past them.

This is what these speakers did for me. Some of them had been nontraditional students, who finished their Master’s degrees in their 50s. They went through struggles in raising families while finishing their education. They were not necessarily well-off, but they had the motivation to succeed and to find other people who were motivated to surround themselves with.  I realized that if they can do it, I can do it.

We can all be inspiring if we show we have the capacity to persevere, to overcome hardship. I believe that if you are honest with others and with yourself and committed to improving your life and serving others as it is in your capacity to do, that you will lead a magnificent life, despite any past mistakes.

For those of you who do not know who I am my name is Victoria and I am currently the Policy Intern here at CCY. I have been working on numerous projects this semester but the biggest project I worked on was our efforts around Runaway and Homeless Youth Month, including the Lighting the California State Capitol Green press event, which was held on Saturday, November 12. It was a huge success, and I’m very proud of what we accomplished. I’d like to take this time to share with y’all a photo blog about the event!

We started our outreach to the California Youth Crisis Line volunteers and invited them to participate in the event.

We also reached out to the Social Work program at Sac State!

Leading up to the event we hung flyers all over Midtown and Downtown Sacramento.

We also asked local businesses to hang green light bulbs in the front of their stores.

We contacted the local AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps campus and had 26 Corps members show up to help!

Some Corps members helped us set up at the Capitol while others did outreach with Crisis Line volunteers and Sac State students.

Sacramento definitely turned green that day with volunteers handing out 450 glowsticks!

In front of the Capitol we had a tent set up and in front of it we had our wall display that gave people statistics on youth homelessness as well as shared the stories of a few young people.

Before we lit the Capitol green we had a brief lighting ceremony where CCY was presented with a Resolution declaring November as Runaway and Homeless Youth Month.

The Capitol was lit green after an energetic crowd of around 100 counted down from 10!

Many folks came by throughout the night and stopped to get their pictures taken and gave us the opportunity to talk to them about Runaway and Homeless Youth Month.

The Mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, even took the time to stop by and take a picture with our Executive Director, Heather Dearing.

Overall the night was definitely a success for CCY and all others who were involved. It started out as just an idea Heather had thrown out at a staff meeting and grew into something quite amazing. There were many lessons learned and I hope this event will only continue to grow and become an annual event.

For more pictures please check out our flickr http://flic.kr/s/aHsjwRJYaJ

For more information about Runaway and Homeless Youth Month in California as well as ways that YOU can get involved please visit ca-rhymonth.org

Sometimes when complicated problems occur, you may have no idea how to fix them. Experience only goes so far and your resources may not be strong enough to conquer the problem right away. Overcoming certain difficulties requires careful maneuvering and usually a lot of outside support. The world can seem daunting and formidable some days. It might seem like no one can help.

When things get this bad, you might start thinking of giving up on whatever you were trying to accomplish. Having tried everything you can think of, you might believe it’s easier to just scrap all the work you have put in while trying to make life better and go back to the way things were. After all, weren’t things simpler then? You may have been miserable and hopeless, but at least you knew where you stood. At least it wasn’t hard.

I am writing about this in very vague terms so you may be able to reflect on your own life situation and whatever difficulty you are encountering. Likely you are dealing with some kind of problem. I feel like just when I get around one obstacle, another one appears in its place.

This is the maddening beauty of life. We are constantly being challenged to grow. Growth can be so painful, but it’s always worthwhile. This is the “character-building” your mom always told you about. It might be easier to stay where you are, but if you’re not expanding, you’re contracting… if you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.

I wish there was a way to wave a wand and make everything okay all the time, but the fact is, everything is usually not okay. There’s always something that could be better or something that isn’t right at all. All we really have power over is how we let these situations affect us. It may not seem like you have a choice about the way things affect you, but you do.

You can always choose a different approach. Try some different way of coping. You can’t wait for the day when everything will be okay because that day will probably never come. What may come is your ability to accept your life as it is in the present moment, and appreciate the good things you do have. Sometimes obstacles can teach us what’s really important.

You may ask, why would California Coalition for Youth light Sacramento green?!

California Coalition for Youth is lighting Sacramento green to raise awareness for Runaway and Homeless Youth month taking place in November 2011!

How can you help us with this exciting event?!

For one, tell everyone you know about California Coalition for Youth!

Follow the legislation that the Coalition supports and become educated on issues affecting California’s youth!

Second, look us up on Facebook and follow our alerts!

Last but not least, continue to raise awareness for California’s homeless and runaway youth!

So, if you’re reading this, go green for CCY!

When you feel alone
You might stay isolated
Trapping all you think
is ugly inside
creating blocks to guard
against your will

When you’ve messed up
you might now know
where the pieces go.
You can’t put things back
the way they were

your old reality is shattered.
Destruction of the past self

under the ruins,
a desire to fix things
to change

you are free now
the excess, the ugliness is gone

you’ve reached the bottom
where your creative work begins

Rearrange
the broken pieces, find new materials
add stability and mold with your hands
Using the strength of your imagination,
you will begin to rebuild

a life fully resembling you
all of your pain, your sweat,  your resolve,
memories you wish you could forget
becoming  something new

Before judging and scrutinizing a situation, it is best to rally all the information before acting. Make an informed decision; otherwise, actions can be more catastrophic.

But as I got older, “maybe” had arisen and became a prominent word in my vocabulary. People didn’t want to outright deny me. To soften the blow, they came up with the ingenious response of “maybe” because fails to directly deny or accept my request. I can’t really say it’s a lie, but it isn’t the truth either.

Maybe is also used as indecision and therefore speculates on a given situation. I don’t understand maybe because it doesn’t really convey much information. People use it to say things in such a way to attract their audience and make them believe that they are on your side by saying things you want to hear, thus, indirectly offering a glimmer of hope.

But the truth, whether good or bad will reveal itself in time. So, isn’t it better to know sooner rather than later? Maybe is not a real response. It’s a probability, but it never indicates how much is or isn’t in my favor. I expend so much energy thinking about the possibilities. Sometimes, people even utilize maybe without saying the word. For instance, the US sent troops to other countries, after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2011, one of them being Afghanistan. On that day four planes were hijacked and two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and killed many people. The leader of these attacks, Osama Bin Laden, had lived for a decade afterward. Then he was finally caught in a compound located near a military base in Pakistan. Since he resisted arrest, he was shot which killed him. This event occurred over a month and a half ago. Now, the Taliban Leader is dead. Is that mission accomplished or what was our goal(s)? If that was the only goal, then the American troops no longer have a reason to reside in Afghanistan and should be sent back home. In the news, there is talk about pulling the troops out, but no decisions have been declared as to “how much and how fast.” The verbose exposes written by journalists and televised by broadcasters arouse responses in their viewers. The appeal to the direct approach is a definitive answer; however, concision usually sounds cacophonous and abrupt and may respond negatively. They prefer the smooth harmonious sounding well weaved answers of maybe. They are temporarily sufficed with the response and fail to ask questions because further inspection into the matter could abolish the implanted ideas that previously shaped to the moldings of one’s belief of the answer.