The foster care system is deeply flawed and is skewed to do two things. Firstly it pushed kids to get put back with their biological parents. Secondly it pushes for younger kids to get adopted over older kids. Both of these are factors in the rate of aging out and the terrible outcomes in life for those who have been in foster care. People who have gone back to their biological parents have mental health issues either from being with their biological parents or being in the foster care system or very likely both. They were taken away from those parents in the first place for a very good reason, why are they going back? There is such a high rate of this happening because there has been an open push for this to happen. The outcomes of this have not been good. Those kids are back in the situations they were pulled from and can now not receive the aid that they would have received if they were in foster care or the small aid that they would have received if they aged out of the system. Then there is the monumental gap in adoption rates between those who are younger and those closer to 18. There has never been a stated push to prioritize the adoption of younger children over those closer to emancipation, however there is a large disparity in adoption rates. This is possible due to the fact that people just do not want to adopt a 16-year-old. This leaves that child with two years of foster care homes before aging out, and this is unacceptable. There is little assistance after someone has come out of foster care at age 18. There are very few people ready for adulthood, especially adulthood completely on their own at that age. Those who age out are badly set up for independence. They have no permanent mentors like those with parents do, they likely do not have a job as they move from foster home to foster home, ad they do not have a sense of healthy relationships. It is a recipe for disaster and the statistics show that. Foster care and adoption agencies do have some things set up, but it is not the same nationally or even close to what is needed. Many agencies offer a transition program where they learn skills to be independent, but most agencies start that program at 13. That seems a little like foreshadowing. A more common practice now is to set up is a program that sets up those who are aging out with mentors. What that practice fails to remember is that people move, and they may not like each other. The simplest answer is just to get these children adopted more often. Far too many of these children are taken from their family, no matter how flawed they are, and then moved around from family to family and never given a permanent life anywhere. Its depressing to hear their stories and even more depressing to  realize that this happens to thousands of kids a year.

Allsides-

Allsides was a little too obvious with how they rated me. They made me place myself on a spectrum of left to right on large issues rather than give me issues or scenarios. It didn’t make me think or prompt me to question my own beliefs. I slid everything to left of center and moved on. Unsurprisingly, I got left leaning. It confirmed what I thought, and I moved on to the next quiz.

8values-

8values was set up entirely different. Some questions were obvious in how they would place you on the political spectrum, but most of the questions were thought provoking. They asked questions that were just slightly too general, such as legalizing drug use. Most people talk about marijuana or psychedelics at most, but this quiz makes you think big picture. This quiz also had a libertarian/authoritarian scale in one of its “values” which I found interesting. I was placed as a libertarian socialist. I had never really tried to find a label for myself outside of Democratic or Republican and sometimes the ol’ “feminist lib” that gets thrown around. I had never considered the ideals of socialisms outside of the historical incidences. I did some research, and on paper I agree with quite a bit of the ideals. I don’t know what they would look like in practice, but some of the questions in the quiz gave me an idea of some of the scenarios.

Political Compass-

This quiz was similar to 8values in that it had more spectrums that it placed you on, but it really wasn’t sneaky with the questions. If you ask me if I think same sex marriage is immoral and I answer with “strongly disagree”, I wonder where it’s going to place me? I also got a strong socialist libertarian on this quiz. The questions didn’t make me think too much, but it was the second time I had seem the phrase “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, so it prompted me to research it. It was indeed a socialist ideal straight from Marx’s mouth.

All in all, this confirmed that I do strongly disagree what the right stands for and I am politically left. I did learn that I may side with socialists on a number of issues and not even know it.

Dear Diary,

I don’t think she’ll ever understand me. She doesn’t go through the things I go through and she doesn’t even try to understand! I’m glad that I can talk to you and the other people my age. They understand just how hard it is to be my age. They’ll never understand my music, what its like to grow up like me, nothing!!!! I’ll never stop telling younger people about how easy they have it though.  

            What bothers me so much is how they don’t understand my music. My music means something to me and they don’t even try to understand it. I love the music with soul and emotion to it, lyrics that really mean something. Will I teach my kids about this music? No. Will I complain to them when they can’t recognize it? Absolutely. (P.S. Margaritaville is an emotional song and its okay to cry to, no matter if you’re one margarita in or six margaritas in SUZANNE)

            They don’t understand the way I want to express myself! I want to wear what I want and say what I want! If I want to wear clothes that cover myself because that’s what I was taught, so should everyone else. I’m not comfortable wearing revealing clothes so no one else should! I want to be able to say what I want with no repercussions. I want to talk loudly about my political and social opinions and not have younger people talk back. That’s what respect is right? Trampling over others’ opinions and not letting them express their thoughts while only expressing mine? That’s all I want. I want to be heard and no one else.

            Diary, I’m just trying to say that I’m a person that they’ll never understand. Maybe one day they can understand me but right now they won’t even try. My music, my clothes, my makeup, even down to my thoughts they are too different! They’ll never understand a boomer like me.

See you tomorrow XOXO,

Karen

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.