I remember being 5 or 6 years old, sitting around my kitchen table with a bunch of adults I didn't know, knowing that they were all talking about me. It was the start of a foster care journey marked by instability and tragedy. I was separated from my siblings. My mom passed away. My older sister passed away.

I recall looking up at a billboard when I was 9 years old, wishing I could put my name and number on there so that other kids in the foster care system could reach out and find a friend who understood.

I have that chance now. As a director at Bloom Fostercare, I work with teens who are aging out of the foster care system, to make sure they have someplace to go and the resources they need to get to where they want to be in life. In lots of places, it's assumed that when you're 21, you go to college. But there are so many steps along the way that could derail the process--things that people take for granted if they live with their birth family. What if you can't list your address because you're unhoused? What if you can't find your high school credits because you switched schools?

When I help foster teens navigate these bureaucracies, we have an automatic connection because I've been where they are. And in a strange way, going back into the system on the other side has helped me find healing, too.