Student learns life lessons from homeless peers

WASILLA — As I listened to my friends tell their stories, all I could think was “where do I sign up to help?”

Can you imagine stealing just to survive? Can you fathom running away from home to stay safe? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to live every day without a nice, hot shower or a comfortable place to sleep? Do you truly appreciate your electricity, warmth and plumbing? Are you grateful for the luxury of living this way?

In the Mat-Su Borough, there are a large number of homeless students who have lost even these most rudimentary of luxuries. These are youth who learned early on that life is not gumdrops, unicorns and rainbows.

I attend Burchell High School with 284 other students. Of those, 111 are homeless, and 68 of those 111 are unaccompanied, meaning they have no guardian or parents involved. Kids become homeless for a lot of reasons. Abuse at home is one big factor. I’m told that the Mat-Su Valley has the highest rate of domestic violence in the country. Substance abuse is another major factor. Most of the time it’s not kids who have addictions, but someone else in the family. Some of them don’t get along with their families, so instead of constant conflict they decide to leave home.

Talking to friends about their experiences, I learned there is nothing glamorous about their lives. They live lives of pain, worry, stress and fear. They have little or no income. They live without a roof over their heads, without plumbing and electricity, warm clothing and food.

Somehow they manage without the things that most of us take for granted every day.

This week I interviewed several of my friends who shared their experiences about living and going to school while not knowing where they would sleep that night or when they would eat next. When these kids tell their life stories, they aren’t fairy tales. They are personal stories that tell of raw fear and pain. These high school students have already run into more struggles than most people face in a lifetime.

When you live on the streets, you can’t keep clean, you get harassed, have the constant fear of being beaten or assaulted. Kids become sick often and they have no way to get help because they lack medical insurance.

These are stories in urgent need of happy endings.

As one girl said, “Being homeless wasn’t a bad experience, nor was being homeless a good experience. It was a life lesson that I believe has made me stronger and will help me in the future.”

She has come to terms with the way she had to live. She wasn’t happy about it, but she said felt she had nowhere else to go.

These kids try hard to stay strong and not show their fear. They have experienced more loss in their lives than many people realize. Learning what they’d lost left the biggest impact on myself.

When I asked what they missed most of everything they had lost, I expected to hear about material things. Instead, the answer they gave was “hope.”

Burchell High School helps in more ways than the homeless students I talked to thought possible. The first and most important thing Burchell gives them is a quality education and a bright future, they said. And the school also provides food, showers, school supplies, transportation for school, clothing and — most importantly — people who care.

The staff keeps in touch with the students to make sure their needs are met. Members of the staff listen and believe in them, which is something most homeless kids have not had before. There are even some students who stay at shelters in Anchorage and hitch hike to Wasilla just to attend Burchell.

From this experience, I have gained a new appreciation and perspective on my life and an awareness of an epidemic. I have learned that no matter what happens, to always make the best of what you have. I know now that I’ve taken for granted the environment that I live in. After listening to these students, I appreciate my parents, home, bed, hot shower and hot meals a lot more.

Working together as a community, we can restore the hope that these classmates lost long ago.

Alayna Barton is a senior at Burchell High School in Wasilla. She sat down with some of her school friends this week to talk to them about what it’s like to be homeless and still in high school.