My hope and my prayer is that you will read this book and be encouraged. Maybe you will see yourself in some of these poems and know that you are not alone. I started writing poetry as a 10 year old and much of this came from my first journals. Writing for me was and remains a way of coping with life's challenges, emotions, and sorting out my thoughts. Growing up is hard and I feel that this is a fact regardless of gender, race, or class. Going through some of things that I experienced, that you will read about, sometimes it was very difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We do not have to accept our current circumstance as our permanent circumstance. We do not have to become a statistic. We do not have to be like everyone around us. In fact, if you feel different, awkward, a little weird - it's because you are peculiar and meant to do something different in this world!