"Almost Home" Blog 4

The next chapter / section of "Almost Home" by Kevin Ryan and Tina Kelley presents the story of a boy named Benjamin Baker. Benjamin grew up in foster care, after his parents constantly abused him as a child. During adolescence, Benjamin received a great opportunity when he was admitted Cisco Junior College on a huge scholarship to play football. Being 6' 6'', possessing a great sense of humor, and amazing athletic skills, it was the perfect change for him to turn things around and begin a life of his own. Despite this, his years of growing up in foster homes caused him to burst out in anger at his coach after a practice one day, automatically dropping him from the team. The next day, he finds himself where he was before he was at school - sleeping under a bridge across from a Greyhound station. Eventually, he turned to selling drugs as his only source of money.
With practically no money and no place to go, he wanted to re-unite with his family. All of a sudden, he had no memory of his mom burning his hands, or being thrown onto the street- he just wanted someone to finally have his back. After eventually traveling back to his mother's house, she took him to Covenant House, and eventually Benjamin graduated from University of Houston with a 92 average and a degree in kinesiology.

Almost Home Blog #3

In this section of the book, I read about a girl named Muriel. Each section of the book serves as a long chapter, each one discussing an individual's life and how they turn out and escape the problems they deal with. Muriel's story is particularly tragic in that she, along with many others in this book, is simply born into an awful situation. In her case, it was fetal alcohol syndrome; and as a result of growing up in a broken home just like Paulie, she went down a very bad road and became addicted to hard drugs before the age of 13. After a short time of trying to recover, Muriel worked as an escort after following advice from her one and only role model in her life, her older sister named Nancy. However, she fell into the trap again, and after becoming addicted she was exploited into prostitution. After growing up with adoptive parents who treated her terribly, she didn't care if what she was doing was tragic, harmful, or simply wrong - she was always taught that her choices simply didn't matter. This chapter ends well in that she went to the Covenant House, and got back on her feet. At first, she was still hiding and using drugs in the facility, and eventually they suggested she either began looking hard for work or make alternate living arrangements. A realization dawned on her one day, and now Muriel not only has a steady and safe job, but also serves as a motivational speaker for young girls who were once in her position and gives advice as to how they can get out and live healthy, productive lives.