This young man is working on discovering himself and his future.
Like his favorite fictional superhero, 10th grader Mark is witty, funny and loyal. Spiderman doesn’t buckle in the face of danger, and only gets stronger after each feat he conquers.
“When I was 3 years old, my parents up and left,” Mark said. He is the youngest of five siblings, many of whom moved, along with Mark, to their grandparents’ home after they were left to their own devices. A few years later, both grandparents passed away within months of each other, and Mark’s aunt took over primary guardianship. However, “it was a lot for her,” Mark says.
As he approached his teenage years, Mark grew bitter. He lost his lust for life and began skipping school. “I felt like I was never in school, and no one really cared or noticed,” he said. “I was reckless.” Mark fell behind academically.
While he has only lived at the children’s home for two months, Mark can see many changes in himself. “This place is great, because it gives kids who don’t have the best home life a second chance,” he says. “I have grown up a lot already.”
Not only has Mark taken advantage of the individual academic assistance available to him, but he was surprised to connect so closely with the once “strangers” who were his house parents and the other young men in his cottage.
“All the guys I live with are cool, and the house parents are the best,” Mark says. “They’re fun to talk to, and some of them even like the same movies and comic book characters I like.”
He has expanded his hobbies since moving to the children’s home, including his love for reading and volunteering with a local church youth group. A few times, Mark has visited the young boys’ cottage to play football and basketball. Sometimes, interacting with the young boys reminds him of his childhood. “Kids are pretty resilient, but their situations can hurt them in the end,” he said. Mark says if he wasn’t at the children’s home, he’d be in foster care, or even worse.
“I could have ended up like the people who have disappointed me,” Mark said, “but now that I’m here, I know I’ll be fine.”
When Mark envisions the next 10 years of his life, he sees himself in law enforcement for one simple reason: “I like to help people,” he says.
While he can’t shoot spider webs from his wrists or detect danger with his “spider-sense,” Mark is learning he has one important ability – to make his own future, one that is void of his past.