You might’ve heard this story before: an unstable family, a drunk father, a violent home. But that wasn’t my story.

My dad was a good man. He just fell in love with the wrong person. They had me and my two siblings, and for a while, things were okay. My mom… let’s just say she liked to have fun. She would disappear for days, leaving us behind. By the time I turned six, my dad had already started giving up.

I wasn’t allowed to attend school, even though I wanted to. If I tried, I’d get yelled at or punished. “School doesn’t put food on the table,” they’d say. I was just a kid with dreams, wanting to be a firefighter, a pilot, or a police officer. But my parents had different plans: I would work the fields. “That’s where real men are made,” they said. So I adjusted. I learned to cope. I followed their rules, or at least I pretended to.

At seven, I experienced school for the first time… not as a student but as a kid selling snacks to other kids. I would sit on the sidewalk outside the classrooms, listening to the lectures. That’s how I learned to read and write a little. I always loved learning. I just wasn’t allowed to.

From age seven to fourteen, I struggled. I worked in the fields. I worked for people from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., often just for food. I didn’t even care about getting paid; I needed to survive. I ended up on the streets.

A gang offered me a “family,” but I never joined. I never felt like I belonged; not in my home, school, or even the streets.

I was so numb I didn’t need love, didn’t need to be seen. I was ready to give up. Then, when I turned fifteen, I met someone who spoke of a place called the United States as if it were another world.

I had never known anything beyond my small city. I started learning about this country and even picked up a few English words; “carrot,” “sink,” “tiger”… even “bitch,” just because it sounded funny. I didn’t know what it meant. That person agreed to help me come to the U.S. I borrowed money for the trip. I wasn’t scared. I felt nothing when I left; probably because the place I left behind was tied to so much pain.

I arrived in the United States and entered foster care. This time, I started school for real, learning how to read and write correctly, and a new language. I graduated from high school, then attended community college, and now, I’m at a university. I’m not studying to be a firefighter, a pilot, or a police officer like I once dreamed. I’m learning something I’ve grown to love with time and experience. I’m the first in my family to graduate, especially in a different country. I have people around me who care: friends, mentors, and a girlfriend who motivates me daily to keep going.

Although many gave up on me, many others have been so open to help and give me opportunities I never thought I would have, like learning how to manage money, how to build skills that are often only passed down within a family, like drawing, and even just laughing with others. That’s where Just in Time comes in.

They’ve offered me a place to go when needed, and people who genuinely care about my future.

They’ve helped me learn about finances, how to be more outgoing, how to take risks, and how to search for what I genuinely want to do and become. Life hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been all bad. There’s still more to my story. But for now, just know this: life isn’t about what you’re given. It’s about what you do with your struggles, how you turn pain into purpose, and how far you’re willing to go to create the life you want.

Alexis joined Just in Time in 2023 and has since enthusiastically embraced what our community has to offer. Financial Fitness, Pathways to Financial Power, My Life/My Story, and Rise to Resilience. Alexis is also a JIT Influencer who has helped photograph our events and has attended our art classes and storytelling workshops.