In Her Own Words - Kayla Perez

My name is Kayla Perez and I am attending YouthBuild Lawrence.   I want to share my story.

Growing up was difficult and I wish I were a kid again as growing up I wanted to be all types of things.

As I started to get older, I began to hang out with the wrong crowd.  I started smoking weed and drinking in school and thought it was cool.  I unsuccessfully went from one school to another and did not get anything done as I thought school was a joke and didn’t take life seriously.  I began to give up on life and did not take advantage of opportunities I had.

I could have been somebody and chose to be a nobody.  I was so young and didn’t make the best choices.  As I got older, the mistakes I made, I began to learn from them.  One day I just woke up and said to myself I need to do right.  I need to get off my butt and be somebody positive.

All I want to do one day is look in the mirror and say “I finally made it!”  Through the years I started losing friends as I needed to make better choices about the people I had in my life that would support me.  I wanted to make my mother proud.  I wanted to help her have a good life.  This was my goal in life, to have a better life.

I decided to apply to YouthBuild Lawrence because I heard many YouthBuild graduates speak of how positive the program is and how successful they were because of attending YouthBuild.  They told me to go to YouthBuild and that I would like it.  I finally applied this year and made it through Mental Toughness and was selected as one of 34 students.  I am going to take advantage of this opportunity.  I want to pass my HiSet test.  I want to get my driver’s license.  I want to learn job skills and have a career.  I want to be a leader and a role model.  I want to be independent and go to college.  I am going to get this done and nothing is going to stop me!

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