Write On: Good influences

Earlier this year, a Denham Springs middle school teacher asked me to speak during two of her career planning classes.

I spoke before 40 teenagers and gave them an overview of my career journey—starting when I was 7 and decided I wanted to be a writer, through my early college years when I felt lost and no longer had any idea what to do with my life, and finally to the point where I got my first job at a magazine. I told them about my internships, about bosses who made me cry and times I thought about giving up, and then about the rewarding moments when I wrote a story that resonated with someone. I told them about how hard I worked to get the career that I wanted, and that sometimes I turned down invites to hang out with friends so I could work instead.

I asked the students about what they wanted to be. Among the audience, there was a future film animator, architect, builder, surgeon, veterinarian, graphic designer, policeman, interior designer and firefighter.

At the end of the session, the future film animator thanked me and told me she was going to credit me in one of her acceptance speeches one day. I’m sure she was joking, but I hope that my advice about working hard to do what you love sticks with them.

I thought about how much I would have loved to meet a professional writer when I was their age, or a photographer or artist. The career speakers who came to my schools when I was a kid were always lawyers or accountants. Not that those aren’t important jobs, but I can’t think of a single instance in school where I was led to believe it was possible to make a living in the creative world.

When I was living in Florida, I volunteered on the weekends as an assistant teacher for Cameras for Kids Foundation, a non-profit that teaches foster children the art of photography. The organization’s director founded it in hopes of helping the children build self-esteem and get their wheels turning about a creative career path after they aged out of the foster care system.

Many of these children had never been told they were good at anything, and it was amazing to give them a camera and see them light up when we told them they had composed a photo well. We taught them about different types of photography and jobs you could get in the industry.

During the first couple of classes, the children were often guarded and distant, but after spending several weekends in the class, they became warmer and more open.

I thought a lot about those kids while reporting this month’s cover story on the aging foster care population in Baton Rouge.

Over the last month, I interviewed some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met—young adults who overcame unthinkable tragedy in childhood and grew into incredible role models. I was equally inspired by the mentors who supported them and made sure they didn’t have to go through the hard times alone.

I have so much respect for anyone who gives up their own time to help others in need—whether it’s foster children, homeless individuals or maybe even just a seventh-grader who doesn’t know what he or she wants to be as a grownup.

If there is anything I’ve learned from the mentors to these foster care youths, it’s that it only takes a few words of encouragement to change someone’s life.