Pitts - Be the one: six true stories of teens overcoming hardship with hope

Note to the reader:

Certain names and other characteristics have been changed.

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Text copyright 2017 by Byron Pitts

Jacket illustrations copyright 2017 by Lisa Congdon

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Jacket design by Chlo Foglia

Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

The text for this book was set in Sabon.

CIP data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4424-8382-8

ISBN 978-1-4424-8384-2 (eBook)

To the members of the Horatio Alger Association, men and women whove committed their time and treasure to help the next generation. Association members are some of the most accomplished people in the United States and Canada. Many have overcome some of the most challenging circumstances one can imagine. Like the young people in this book, there is a toughness to each of them and an endless optimism about life and whats possible to those who dream and work.

W hen I was a boy, my grandmother would always greet me with the sweetest touch and kindest words. Shed give me a big hug, pull me close, and whisper in my ear, Youre the one. No matter what was going on in my life, everything felt better when I heard her voice and those words washed over me. For the longest time I thought her greeting meant I was somehow special. Back then I wore glasses and was toothpick thin. I had a head that I hadnt grown into yet and a noticeable stutter. So any suggestion I was special in a good way certainly meant something to me.

But as I got older, I came to realize Youre the one meant something else. She was encouraging me to be okay with who I was, to believe in who Id become, and to be the one (with Gods loving grace) to choose a positive path.

I came to that conclusion after meeting a diverse group of young people with challenges far greater than mine who had somehow chosen on their own to be the one to take a better path for themselves. Theyd realized they had a role to play in changing their circumstances.

How do you explain it, young people who face what seem like insurmountable odds and yet succeed? Is it something with which they were born? Did the right influences come into their lives at the right time? Luck? Grace? Or is it a miracle?

I believe it is all those things but something more. That more is... the individual, the person who makes the choice to change oneself and even ones circumstances when possible, the person who embraces hope over heartache no matter the situation. Many of us know people like this but fail to realize that that very person may live inside each of us: a tiger ready to leap out and change the world. Healing can come from many places, but it starts and ends with you, the individual who finds the hero inside your own heart. Luck has been described as what happens when preparation and location meet; grace, as unmerited gifts from God; and a miracle, as an extraordinary event that surpasses human understanding. I certainly believe in the supernatural power of God, but there is an African proverb that states: When you pray, move your feet. This is a book about young people who move their feet.

Inside these pages are the real stories of real preteens and young adults who have overcome challenges of many kinds: poverty, family mental illness, abandonment, obesity, neglect, war, homelessness, violence, molestation, and bullying. None would describe themselves as special or possessing any unique gifts. On many levels they are what you would describe as remarkably ordinary. All would agree that at an early age they were dealt a bad hand. And they played it with little or no complaint and often with little help. They were able to be the one for themselves because they had to be. There was no plan B. No one was coming quickly to rescue them, so they chose to rescue themselves.

As a journalist for more than thirty years, I have seen courage and cowardice in most of their forms. I have witnessed the powerful and the powerless in action. Many have names history will recall. Most do not. But few, if any, have inspired me more than the people you are about to meet. Most of them showed courage when no one was looking, displayed wisdom beyond their years. Each in his or her own way possesses an earnest and joyful spirit that defies his or her circumstances. For some that optimism seems to come more easily. For all it was a choice. And each can teach us something about taking personal responsibility for our lot in life. These are not bootstrap stories of young people who made it on their own. But rather, young people who endured when they had to, sought out others when they could, and managed to stay faithful to their dreams and ambitions when they could very easily have given up. More than survivors, they are overcomers.

Over the years Ive spent considerable time with grade school, high school, and college students... people at every rung of the academic and social ladders. And I noticed a pattern: Regardless of their standing, so many of them were hurting, unsure and often even fearful about their own future. Sometimes this fear bordered on paralysis. They were stuck. As if the world had already dictated their future and they were simply innocent bystanders. The people youre about to meet decided early on that they would not be bystanders.

Hero is a word we use too often in our culture. An accolade usually heaped upon athletes and celebrities. But people who defend life and save lives deserve such titles. Well, the kids in this book all saved at least one life: their own.

Thats why they are my heroes.

The hero who most inspired this book was an eleven-year-old girl I met at a charter school in a big US city. Her name is Tania Parker. Soon after meeting her, I wanted the world to know her story. And I wanted others who might see some of Tania in their own stories to know they are not alone and to know that heroes come in all sizes and all ages.

Years after we first met, when I reconnected with Tania, I told her she was my hero. She blushed with embarrassment. Me?! she giggled.

Yes, Tania Parker is my hero because the life she lives, and a question she asked me about her plight, are both heartbreaking and inspiring.

I met Tania at a school assembly when she was eleven. I was there to talk to her entire school about the importance of education and working hard. At the end of my remarks Tania walked up to me and asked the following question: Mr. Pitts, when you were my age, where did you go, where did you hide, when the world hurt too much?

She took my breath away.

The people youre about to meet have all asked a similar question in their own lives. They each found an answer. This book chronicles their journeys to those answers.

They all chose to be the one to help turn around their own lives. And some have made part of their lifes work be to inspire and encourage others. To be the one to stand up for those not yet ready to stand up for themselves.