Foster Youth Storm D.C. for Shadow Day

On a humid Saturday evening in a town I had only ever dreamed of being in. With one hand gripped firmly on my suitcase and the other frantically dialing phone numbers left and right, I knew that this week was going to be something remarkable.

Making my way to Chic Fil A, there were a collection of people huddled up in an awkward clump getting to know each other. After a few necessary polite exchanges, we made our way to a shuttle with the understanding that we were only a fraction of the faces that were to be seen as delegates. Taking in the DC environment, we were all caught in sheer fascination at how elegant our home base Gallaudet was. Minutes later, we all coalesced into our assigned pods eagerly waiting for former shadow and current Miss DC Cordelia Cranshaw to address us.

There truly was a feeling of hushed awe in the room as she spoke, signaling that her success could be achieved by any one of us in the future. After the mandatory introductions, a majority of us made our way to the game room while others simply faded back to their rooms from the exhaustion carried over by hours of grueling travel.

After getting utterly demolished at table tennis, I too vanished to prepare for the multiple workshops over the next few days. The next 24 hours were spent learning about our topic policies and such. Between the raucous sessions, the free time was spent engaging in moments where the initial subtleness of everyone’s individual personalities quickly subsided for bonding time.

For me personally, open mic night was fantastic in getting to know each other. And it was the little moments such as watching people’s reactions of joy at seeing fireflies for the first time or trying some of the local cuisine that made those small moments of downtime some of the most fulfilling. Day four, the moment we all had been waiting for. We all lined up for the bus anxiously to meet our designated members of congress.

After arriving and eating breakfast, we all waited with our ears drawn towards the air for our names to be called. After getting my packet, I was informed that I was with the wrong person. Imagine the look of shock on my face as all the information I had previously learned about my original person had to be thrown out as I adapted on the fly with my newly matched representative. It ended up being one of the best experiences I had.

My representative was Don Bacon from Nebraska, and he ended up being extremely passionate about improving the system.

After that event, the rest of my experience in DC went by in a flash. The obligatory sightseeing took up the rest of my time. It’s Thursday at 4 in the morning. The lobby was dead quiet with the tired bodies of some of the people I had shared this experience with. About a dozen of us packed into a shuttle with a little murmur here and there on the way to the airport.

After exiting, I took one long goodbye knowing full well that this might have been one of the most amazing experiences available. I am writing this article after a week of inflection, having some time to reflect upon it. To the audience reading this I implore you to share this opportunity with any former youth as a chance to better themselves. To the dozens and dozens of people who entered my life briefly during that week I give my utmost thanks for both allowing me to be myself and yet grow as a human being. It was amazing to know that we were once the forgotten children in America, yet still are able to bond over our hardships. Maybe someday, we’ll be the faces you see in charge of bettering the system so that no one will be forgotten in the future. I am a recent graduate from Washburn University with a Bachelor’s degree in Science in Criminal Justice. An advocate of foster care since 2011, my current passion is improving the educational standards for foster youth. I spent three years in foster care in the state of Kansas. My current passions are fitness, music, and culinary studies. My future goal might potentially be as an active member of the Peace Corps.