Guest columnist Frank Austin, 18, is Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland’s 2019 Youth of the Year. He is a senior at Cleveland Max S. Hayes High School, where he has been an honor roll student. He has worked as a service technician intern at Liberty Ford for the past two years and plans a career as an engineer or mechanic.
Everything changed for me when I was 14.
I came home from school expecting to see my mom like I normally would. The car was outside, so surely she was home, I thought. To my surprise, she was not. I found out she was in the hospital.
The doctors told us they believed a too-strong dose of her blood-pressure medication had caused her heart to stop. She was brain dead. My siblings and I made the hardest decision of our lives -- to end my mom’s suffering and take her off life support.
It is a day I will never forget. It was the day I had no choice but to become a man.
In an instant, my entire life changed. My oldest sister, Destiny, was only 18. She had just moved into her first apartment with her infant son and was expecting another child. But with the unexpected passing of my mother, she also had gained custody of all of us.
So there we were, Destiny and her two children; my 15-year-old sister, Jade; my brother, Kody, 11; my sister Trinity, who was 8; and myself. Until very recently, it was my job to get up every day at 5 a.m., get the younger ones ready for school, then catch two buses and a Rapid train so I could get to my own first period class on time.
Life had changed so much for us in such a short period of time. Looking back on it now, I realize that we did not actually grieve and deal with the passing of our mother. Instead, we were forced to continue on and do our best to survive.
By telling you this, I am not looking for pity. Yes, life has been difficult. The biggest lesson I learned through all of this is that hard work goes a long way toward improving your situation, whatever it is.
For me, it was taking on adult responsibilities at a very early age. Since my 18-year-old sister essentially became the legal guardian and parent to six kids overnight, she needed help. We were unstable, moving around a lot and getting into huge neighborhood fights. Kids picked on my siblings and me. We were staying in bad neighborhoods and dealing with break-ins, shootings and other crime.
I was angry and getting into a lot of trouble at school. It was hard to focus on academics when life at home was so rough. I needed help. I needed something to help turn my life in a new direction.
I found that direction at Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland.
They had everything -- a basketball court, games, computers, books and music. Most importantly, it was a place where I could just be a teen.
The staff also opened up my world to possibilities I did not know existed, such as volunteering with Slavic Village Development on a project to make the neighborhood around the Broadway Club better.
I became president of BGCC’s Keystone Club, a teen leadership group, and was the first teen to complete the club’s career-readiness program.
For the past two years, I’ve had an internship at Liberty Ford while also going to high school and working as a club junior staff member. (The club even helped me get my first used car, donated by a woman who heard my story!)
I may not come from the best neighborhood or be from the best circumstances. I still struggle with things that may come easily to other teens my age. But without a doubt, I work hard every single day in order to be the best that I can be. That is a trait that has helped me survive and see better days.
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