Throughout life, people learn many things whether it be through family, friends, or peers. Madison Sanders, a freshman, has a unique experience growing up that not many people can relate to. Ever since Sanders’ could remember, her mother has been fostering children. Fostering children is consistent with giving children a safe environment until they could be given back to their biological parents or family. Sanders remembers many ups and downs of having her mother be a foster parent. Through these trials and tribulations Sanders believes she has been able to build herself into a responsible young lady.
“I feel like the foster children my mom opened our home to really helped shape me into the person I am now,” said Sanders. “Growing up I would see some girls that would be 16 or 17 with children and I saw how hard it was on them. Seeing teenage girls have to deal with the stress of a child and the stress of not being with their actual parents made me want to make responsible decisions so I wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences.”
Learning the lessons Sanders learned was not easy at first. As a young child many lessons had to be learned the hard way. She recognized the fact that many of the children that were coming into her home had issues, whether it be mental health problems or physical health problems. Sanders had to learn to be more alert and careful with her belongings along with the relationships she built with the foster children.
“If they’ve been in foster care for a long time, they have their own little tricks and things they do to get what they want,” said Sanders. “They don’t care if they get in trouble and they don’t care if they get me in trouble because they know they’re not going to be with me and my mom forever so at times some of them would do whatever they want and it would lead to me getting in trouble and the next day they’re leaving, so I just always had to be careful.”
Although some of the children who were let into Sanders’s home had problems within, she was able to build a bond with others. Even though the bonds built would have to be cut short, Sanders still valued the time she was able to have with them. She saw many of them as older siblings and was often hurt whenever they would leave.
“I remember when I was in third grade I ended up getting very close with one of the foster children my mom brought back home,” said Sanders. “She was 17 and she was always so nice to me, she felt like an older sister to me, but she had to leave. I was so sad when it happened.”
Through these expereinces, Sanders has learned more than just how to be a better person; she also adopted some hobbies from the children she’s met that she’s still pursuing to this day. Sanders became a big art fan and gamer through the people she met in her life.
“It was these two sisters, they were so nice and fun to be around. They were the ones who got me interested in art, origami, and just art in general,” said Sanders. “I remember always seeing her draw and one day I asked her if she could show me how to draw hands, and ever since then I’ve been interested in art. I don’t draw every day but I do draw often because it helps me escape from reality.”