At fifteen and a half, I didn’t fully understand what independence meant. I thought it meant freedom, no rules, no homes to lose, no one to leave. But now, I see it differently. It meant responsibility. It meant discipline
When people asked about my family, my answer was always simple: I was in foster care with no family. And if pressed about whether I’d ever looked for them, my reply was steady, almost rehearsed: No, never. They left me. If they wanted to find me, they could have. In later years, I added, they have no rights to my happiness, my love, or my life.
I have always carried a fear deep inside of people knowing me. Vulnerable. I had survived this long by burying the past, by keeping my scars hidden beneath layers of silence. Now the past was knocking at my door.
My daughter had just given birth to my first granddaughter in 2017. As much as I wanted answers, I wanted to give them what I never had: a history, some kind of roadmap.
I had seen it happen too many times, foster care kids getting high, getting drunk, getting arrested. They fell into cycles that seemed impossible to escape. Some never did.
I still had so much to learn about myself and the world around me, how to stand on my own two feet, how to survive not just physically but emotionally, how to live, truly live, without a safety net.
Somehow, through every dark hallway, every goodbye, every home packed into black garbage bags, I had made it here, to a place where I could finally choose me.
Karri Lynn Gage
At fifteen and a half, I didn’t fully understand what independence meant. I thought it meant freedom, no rules, no homes to lose, no one to leave. But now, I see it differently. It meant responsibility. It meant discipline
9 months ago | [YT] | 3
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Karri Lynn Gage
It wasn’t about running away or surviving. It was about standing still, staying and proving that I was capable of building a life that was mine alone.
9 months ago | [YT] | 2
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Karri Lynn Gage
When people asked about my family, my answer was always simple: I was in foster care with no family. And if pressed about whether I’d ever looked for them, my reply was steady, almost rehearsed: No, never. They left me. If they wanted to find me, they could have. In later years, I added, they have no rights to my happiness, my love, or my life.
9 months ago | [YT] | 1
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Karri Lynn Gage
I have always carried a fear deep inside of people knowing me. Vulnerable. I had survived this long by burying the past, by keeping my scars hidden beneath layers of silence. Now the past was knocking at my door.
9 months ago | [YT] | 3
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Karri Lynn Gage
My daughter had just given birth to my first granddaughter in 2017. As much as I wanted answers, I wanted to give them what I never had: a history, some kind of roadmap.
9 months ago | [YT] | 4
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Karri Lynn Gage
I had run away before, not because I was rebellious, but because I was desperate. Desperate to feel safe, to feel seen, to feel alive.
9 months ago | [YT] | 2
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Karri Lynn Gage
I had seen it happen too many times, foster care kids getting high, getting drunk, getting arrested. They fell into cycles that seemed impossible to escape. Some never did.
9 months ago | [YT] | 1
View 0 replies
Karri Lynn Gage
I still had so much to learn about myself and the world around me, how to stand on my own two feet, how to survive not just physically but emotionally, how to live, truly live, without a safety net.
9 months ago | [YT] | 0
View 0 replies
Karri Lynn Gage
Somehow, through every dark hallway, every goodbye, every home packed into black garbage bags, I had made it here, to a place where I could finally choose me.
9 months ago | [YT] | 0
View 0 replies
Karri Lynn Gage
Faith the size of a seed, they said, could move mountains.
10 months ago | [YT] | 2
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