What I wish the world knew.
I wish the world knew what I feel on the inside, on the outside, and when no one is by my side.
I wish the world knew that I had it tough, I had it rough, and I had to deal with all of the nasty stuff.
I wish the world knew when I am mad, when I am sad, and when I am glad.
I wish the world knew that I actually have emotions that I can show, but I don’t want to show.
I wish the world knew how to help me because even I don’t know.
I wish the world knew that I struggle on the inside, but don’t show it on the outside.
I wish the word knew that I am a good person and I just made a bad mistake.
I wish the world knew how life is hard but you just have to keep pushing forward.
I wish the world knew who the real me is, and why it never shows.
I wish the world knew how I am a really good person, but don’t want people to take advantage of me.
I wish the world knew that I am actually nice, and kind but don’t want to have people stab me in the
back.
I wish the world knew what it is like to be me.
I wish the world knew…
About me.

DS 10th grade

 Listen, I may be a Chicano with criminal charges and a deported father
My momma was always there for me and leaving my side is what she never seemed to bother.
I used to think that drugs, alcohol, and gangs were cool
Now I’m sitting incarcerated disappointed in how I made myself look a fool.
Court ordered for me to stay until I get my life together
Momma always told me that things will get worse before they get any better.
These days that I’ve spent have really got me thinking
I know that if I don’t change, I’m going to keep on sinking.
They say Mexicans don’t do much, or Blacks either
All I hear nowadays is white folks judging us through a speaker.
Some don’t believe that it pays to make it stack
All I really want to do is stop running away and face the fact.
What I want the world to truly know is that I don’t just accomplish things for a show.
I accomplish things to let people understand that I’m the brightest kid the world will ever
know.

-AG 9th grade

 I want the world to know that everyone has struggles, and that when you judge people
without knowing who they are hurts them more than the knife wounds that have been inflicted
upon their soul through the drugs that they abused. It hurts because they have seen that judging
look on every one of their family’s face. They saw it every time they said they are trying to
change. Thinking about how the addict inside cheats and lies just makes the guilt that much more
overwhelming.
For many of you this piece of writing is just like any other, but for that one person that is
scared, doesn’t think they can change, and is hopeless it is here to give you comfort in the fact
that I am going through it to, but I will continue trying. I want the world to know that the 99% of
the population that does not struggle with addiction is no better than the addict who is using in
the back of his car because he cannot find another outlet to cope. I am here and I can hear the
scream for help in you, even if you yourself do not know that you are begging for it to stop. I
want the world to know that I have made mistakes, and I will continue to make mistakes no
matter how much I wish to be the perfect little boy my mom sees me as.
I want the world to know that I am always going to strive to fix the mistakes that I have made!
~ DJ, 10th grade

 What I wish the world knew about me, is that at times I can be
a little mean, but it is not to hurt anyone’s feelings. It’s because
I am trying to help you not make the same mistakes I did, and if
I am trying to help you to not make a mistake then just try to
listen because it will probably help you in the long run. I am a
good listener so if you have something you want to get off your
chest, then I will be listening the whole time and I will also
communicate back when the time is right to talk.

Most people ask me if I do drugs, and I tell them I use to. I am
not a negative person anymore, and I am can tell you why if
you just ask. Don’t be afraid to ask people questions, and don’t
be afraid about expressing your feelings to others because it
will not help you if you don’t ask if someone can talk with you.
Sincerely,
~JG, GED track

 I mess up but put all my mistakes out when I trip and fall. I am
just losing it all. Things are so hard to do. I am challenged on a
provocation, all the things not in a process with elimination but
all at once. I myself feel things spiral out of control. I feel like a
gator has me in a death role. I’m so done my mindset is so
wrong. The more I’m told it won’t be long. I just do is hurt
others when they want to help me like brothers. But no I can’t
accept the help I can be given. I guess I can say I’m not living. I
feel so unneeded I life live to the empty. But I guess things can
be worked on. It’s getting up when the things go wrong. I get
up and sing my song through the battles. I can try even though
the odds seem stacked against me. These chains of failure will
no longer drag and fence me down. I am turning it around. No
longer held to the bounds and limits people and I set. Now I
won’t let it get to me. With this I will not forget these lyrics of
the beat side of me but with these lyrics I’m set free. My lyrics
are the new set me for I am free. This is insight in my mind. I
can rise up through the rough times. The depression is a part
but I can manage and get better. I’m a new book a new letter. I
am kind and helping. I’m learning to help and do help slowly.
This is what I want the world to know about me.
~WM 9th grade

 I wish the world knew how my life has been for the last 18 years of my life.
I was born October 14th 2002. My life has been a struggle for me. I have fought the battle of
insecurity, fear, anger, loneliness, loss, torn, unhappiness, and unworthy by myself. It has beat
me down I have stood up and back to the ground. I feel like I am alone. I have no hero. It’s just
me fighting. I have no army I have no one to help me. This battle has broken me smashed my
face into the ground, yet I still get up and try to fight. Feeling exhausted and beat. These demons
have taken everything and everyone I love away from me. It has taken every part of me and split
it into puzzle pieces. Now I have given up on trying to fight. All my focus is on getting away
from these demons to hide from them and try to find the pieces to the puzzle that once was my
life. Scatted everywhere. Some pieces are gone and I will never complete the puzzle of my life. I
am an insecure broken-hearted boy that just wanted his family back. Demons tower over me
while I sit in a corner and cower down to them. I am no longer the man that is strong and can
conquer everything thrown at him. I am no longer a warrior. I am a boy that just wanted to fulfill
his dreams. I am fumbling for the one remaining thing I have. That is still the love I feel. I have
been raped, abused, and thrown away. If I was ever like my twin brother I could beat these
demons without a problem. If I could have my brother back I would be happy. He was all I need,
he was my hero. I wish I could grow up to be like him. Maybe if I was stronger I could have
saved him. Kept him avoid his fate, maybe I could’ve been his hero. I would do absolutely
anything to have him back. Now he’s gone and I didn’t and couldn’t do anything to save him. I
was too weak. I was always the one who couldn’t do anything. I always kept him from doing
what he wanted because I always wanted to be next to him. I was afraid that he would leave. I
held him back so much and now he will never be able to do what he wanted to because he’s
dead. I just want be happy, but I can’t because he’s gone. I wish I could do something to go back
and let him go so he can follow his dreams. I am torn. I have tried to escape from them so that I
can get stronger to be able to fight them. To overcome what they have done to me. I was raped
and beat from the age of 4 to the age of 17. When this happened to me I got into drugs and things
that would kill someone. I have done things nobody else has. I watched both of my uncles die at
the age of 9 and the age of 15. I have been thrown into a cage because the state said I am a
dangerous beast. They told me that a beast like me needs to be in a cage until I can be tamed.
Then when they told me that once I have been tamed I can be let free but I have to have a
tracking collar. I just want to be free I want to change the world I want everyone to be safe and
feel okay. I want the world to be a beautiful place that attracts other people and things to a
beautiful wonderland. I want to make all the darkness go away forever. I want to bring the
magick that once lived to come back. I want to create a place where everyone can feel happy.
Since my brother has died my mind has wondered and has turned into what a beautiful and safe
place where everyone can come back to life if they have passed and live in a place of Mother
Nature and where there were no such things as guns just things that were made by hand that
Mother Nature has created. It would be beautiful place that where things were ran like the Native
American ways. Only there will be no need to have punishment. So what I am telling you is that
my life has been dark and lonely but even when you are in a dark and lonely life style you will
always have an imagination that you can wonder to, to feel a sense of security and love. Being
able to think about what I would be like to if I were to live by the Native American ways. And
when I say magic I don’t mean that there are fairytale creatures and beings. I mean the kind of

 magic that had happened long ago when there were spirit animals and you lived off of what
nature gives you. I have always loved to be out in the wild. I don’t like to be inside for a long
period time. I will build a cabin that is in the middle of a beautiful forests. When I have children
I will not have any electronics I will raise my children everything they would need to know with
what nature provides. I will teach my children to rely on themselves, each other, and nature for
things. Not to rely on electronics. I think that it is better communicating in person than talking on
electronics. On social media you don’t always know who it is behind that screen you could be
thinking you are talking to one person but when really you’re not talking to the person you think
you are. I have always relied on nature. I have been raised to utilize what nature provides. I want
everyone to know that even though I have lived in some dark times for me. I have also had times
that were bright and soothing. I can always depended on nature. I want everyone to know that I
have watched both of my uncles get shot and killed. When I was 9 years old I learned to shoot a
gun because a rival’s gang came into my uncle’s house so we had to hide my aunt and ours.
Cousins my twin brother, uncle and I had grabbed guns and tipped over a couch before the gang
members entered my uncle’s house and started to fire their guns. My twin brother, uncle and I
began to do the same. When I looked over and saw my uncle fall back and saw the bullet hole in
his lung as he was choking on his blood my brother and I fell into tears as I held my uncle I cried
and told him not to go that I need him, that he was going to be okay and then he looked at me
and my brother and said through breaths of choking on blood he said that he was proud of us and
for us to take care of the kids and our aunt. He closed his eyes and his heart stopped beating so
me and my twin brother grabbed the guns and jumped up and through our tears we yelled and
fired the guns. Once the gang members were all dead the police came in and saw that my brother
and I had guns in our hands and saw all the dead bodies the drew their weapons and told us to
drop our guns we did and they detained us they checked the whole house while we were on the
ground detained and they found my aunt and our 2 cousins and brought them out my aunt saw all
the dead bodies and broke down in tears the room was filled with blood and immediately came to
my brother and I the police tried to stop her but she pulled away from them and yelled at them
saying that we were her nephews. And told the officers that all those dead bodies in red were the
ones that broke into her house then pointed at my uncle’s lifeless body and said that is my
husband and their uncle pointing at me and my brother. She told the officers to let us go and that
my brother and I did this to protect them and our uncle died doing so but we managed to survive
and keep her and the kids safe. So the police let us go and asked us what had happened so we
told them and then they had taken our aunt, cousins, and us to a place that we could clean up then
they took us to a hotel and had a few officers stationed outside our room to make sure we
remained safe. So all of us stayed at the hotel a couple weeks before my brother and I’s mom
came to pick us all up. Then when my brother and I were 15 we watched our uncle get shot by a
different uncle over a BMX bike so when that happened my brother and I went after that uncle
and took the gun from him and beat the crap out of him then after we were done for 10 minutes
the police showed up and questioned us and we had told them what had happened then they had
looked us up on their computer and saw that 6 years earlier we were in a situation that our other
uncle died, so they came up to us and had asked us if we were okay and asked what they could
do to help us. So we told them that we just want away from the place we were at and that we just
want to be happy and stop having our uncle’s die. That we just wanted to save the ones we love

 and for some reason we can’t. the cops told us it was going to be okay and asked us again if there
was anywhere in particular that we wanted to go so we told them that we wanted to go to Destiny
and Lilly’s house because they were our girlfriends and that they can help us and take care of us
and look after us. So the police did so, so when we got to their house and had knocked they had
opened the door and saw that there was blood all over us, so they asked “what the fuck happened
to you. Why are you bloody?” so we told them what had happened they immediately pulled us
into their arms and held us while we cried and the officers asked if we were okay here and asked
if they could look after us. So they said “of course we will they are our boys and they need us.
Then they told them thank you”, closed the door and took us to their bathrooms. Destiny took me
into her bathroom and Lilly took my brother into her bathroom and ran us a shower once we
were in the bath they got in with us and washed the blood off of us and then we got out and they
got us some clean clothes to put on but my brother and I only took the underwear and asked if we
had to put all the cloths on and they had told us no. so my brother and I asked if we could go lay
down and they said yes and they put on the bras and underwear and took us to their rooms and
laid down with us in bed and held us while we cried then slept. It was nearly 10:00 am the next
day when me and my brother and I woke up and Destiny and Lilly brought us breakfast in bed.
Then later on that year me and my brother were incarcerated and have been incarcerated for
almost 2 years now we were incarcerated July 18th 2018 and now today it is July 2nd 2020.
~ GP 10th grade