I was 16 when I entered the foster system, and know firsthand the statistics for 'aging out.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've watched my peers get better with age and hoped that would happen with me.
My mother was 45 when she had me, so when I was in high school my parents were the same age as my friends' grandparents.
I realise I'm still a child, though I do feel older. I recently did an on-line test called 'What's Your True Age?' My result was 50-60 years old.
I always wanted to live to about 70. I thought that'd be a good age.
I'm not bothered by the idea of getting old, or I guess you could say by having arrived at old. I was 10 when my mom turned 55. For 1955, she was a very old mom.
I have spent a lot of time with foster children over the years - kids for whom I have not necessarily acted as a foster parent.
When I was growing up, my parents took in foster children. From a young age, I learned that there are a lot of children in need.
I think I was pigeonholed pretty early on. And I started late in my career. I was 33.
I'm 65 and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics. But if there were fifteen months in every year, I'd only be 48. That's the trouble with us. We number everything. Take women, for example. I think they deserve to have more than twelve years between the ages of 28 and 40.
I was out of the house at 16 by my own doing. It forced me to really grow up and take care of myself, and I learned a lot of things that your parents usually teach you, on my own.