Lately, I’ve been seeing the world in different shades of light and shadow. I’m getting insight into a very difficult and not so happy side of life. For the past three months, I’ve been working at a girls’ group home where the girls have had traumatic pasts. Whenever I talk about my job I won’t go into much detail in that aspect because of confidentiality and respecting privacy, but yes, things have, and are, not so easy for the girls I work with, to put it lightly. Each day is a challenge. Sometimes the day is disheartening because of all the hardships the girls face, mostly due to their unpleasant home lives when they were growing up. Sometimes it’s a difficult day because the girls push hard against me. Other times I see the system is attempting to help these young ladies and yet failing in the process. But other days I see progress. I see good things happening and I see them smile and laugh. These kids have had it rough and yet they are resilient. The major upside to the job is, everyday I go into work, I am helping provide an environment that is safe, something that is new to many of the girls. I see the amazing umbrella of security my group home offers. So when I go into work, everyday offers new potential for these girls to fight for good opportunities and to be free to act like teenagers. It’s a pretty amazing job. It has me pushing myself and testing my patience and personal resilience. And you know what? It’s tough but I love it. This is what I want to achieve right now in this little segment in life: Help these resilient teens along to a path filled with less shadow and more light.