NATASHA R.

My dream is to live my life to the fullest. I want to be happy, healthy and to graduate college. Here is what the different sections of my canvas represent:

• Pink (my favorite color) is the universal love of one’s self and others.
• Purple stands for my dreams of independence, luxury, power and wealth.
• White stands for purity and peace – the peaceful life that I seek.
• Orange stands for determination, happiness, success, and encouragement – all the feelings I know I’m going to feel when I graduate from college.

Having a criminal background has affected my goals tremendously. Mentally, the things that I went through in adult jail affected my happiness. I was so used to being alone that now I struggle to build relationships with others.

I am a student at CCBC, and being charged as an adult has interfered with completing school because I’m afraid that my hard work will not be valued because of my background. My experiences haven’t changed my dreams, but they have changed how hard I have work to achieve them.