“Alright. Some of y’all have heard me talk about this place before now. This is where I lived when I was in high school and thank God this placed existed. My life could’ve looked much different today had I not been there (Chrysalis) then. They took me out of somewhere I couldn’t stay anymore and they treated me right. Even when I was hard to love. This was a light at the end of the tunnel.
Any sense of normalcy, or something that I could count on, I got that here. I was genuinely loved and looked out for in this place. I really can’t tell you how that lifted me up. This is nearby and they still exist. This is a place of refuge for girls around here and they do so much work with them beyond just letting them live there.
I got to finally play softball when I lived here. I got to go to prom. They covered my field trips with rotc or whatever else I wanted to do. I was even encouraged to do all of those things. Even with running 10 other girls around, I never missed anything. It was never inconvenient. They got us counseling too. They let me work when I got old enough. Pa was the one who taught me how to drive.
Point is, they provided a way to make something beautiful out of what looked like a mess. That’s what they do. This place is dear to my heart.
