In this blog, I am going to be talking about how being a care experienced person has changed my life and given me the courage to go on and make a stronger and better life for myself with these experiences. With me writing this blog, I hope that its readers will be able to look upon my experiences but also allow my experiences and story to help them gain and create a better life for themselves as being in foster care is not always the end of a perfect life, sometimes for most it can be the beginning of something amazing.
As someone who has been in the fostering system and now entering independence after five years in the system, I have got to say that the whole experience has given me memories and stories that has and will still help me throughout my whole life, but these are both good memories and bad.
However, as a lot of us know of who has been in the fostering system and who has gone through the same experience of transitioning into independence, our history of the system and the experiences we have gained while living in foster care, as made us better people both personally and professionally.
In my experience of myself being in the fostering system, a lot of my own history of being in care was down to recovering from my issues with mental health and coming to terms with my own sexuality because when being in care, I was always suffering with self-doubt and personal issues, but this all changed during my time in the system, as I had a lot of people around me both personally such as my friends and work colleagues but also professionally such as my mental health worker, LAC Nurse (Looked after child nurse), and my teachers both at college and university.
However, this is not the only sort of thing that being in care has helped me with and has changed my life…. before I went into care, I never had the courage to talk to people or even get a job as I was always anxious and felt that no one would want to be around me, but during my time in foster care this all changed as I was able to build up my confidence to apply for jobs and gain new friends both in a friendly manor and people who ended up to this day being friends who are also like family to me.
Being in the system, helped massively with my personal and professional skills, however this is not always the same for everyone as for some they can always end up worse than before they entered the system, however in my opinion with the support of social workers and foster carers, many young people who end up going through the system also end up on the other side with a stronger career path and life then they would have otherwise just like I have.
So, I have a message for care experienced people who read this blog…. Never feel that being in care will not change your life because it will, but this is never a terrible thing because with the fostering system changing your life, it will allow you to grow but also gain the experience you need for the next chapter of your life, just like I did. So never feel that being in care is bad because one day the experiences you have experienced will make you into a better person for the rest of your life….
By Anonymous Care Experienced Blogger
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