00:00I have no regrets in life. I am here because of what I've been through. Each decision,
00:06good and bad, has led me to where I'm at. But I shouldn't have been through all of what I've been through.
00:30A kid should be a kid. And I didn't have that chance. Not at home, which is back home in
00:42El Salvador. And I didn't have it in here. I had to grow up. My mother used to cry because
00:47she didn't know what she was going to give us food the next day. And one day she just
00:52decided to move here. The opportunity was given to her. So she immigrated here.
01:00I had this boyfriend who was much older than me. And I was 13 at that time. We were both
01:06from El Salvador. And he only lives 20 minutes away from me. And then we became friends.
01:14And that was my only friend. One time, he just decided to go to the mall,
01:22Queen Center Mall. I had my book bag because I just came out of school. And he started
01:26putting t-shirts, two t-shirts, that it was $25. I don't want to be fighting with him.
01:34But I knew it was wrong. He was my only friend, my only support system, not my mother, not
01:39my family. I just took the book bag with the t-shirts. And as we were trying to go out,
01:46we were stabbed. He said to me, take the blame. Take the blame. Take the blame. You're underage.
01:52They're not going to do nothing to you. The next business days, I was in court, Queen's
01:57Family Court. I was facing 18 months of probation for my first offense. I didn't speak English
02:05at that time. And I just didn't know nothing about nothing. Next, I took the plea. I pled
02:13guilty. At that time, I found out I was pregnant. And I was only 14. I stopped going to school.
02:24And then I just stopped seeing my probation officer because, first off, he only spoke
02:28English and I only spoke Spanish. I spent about five to five years and a half in just
02:33from one system to another. I need to do something, something greater than me, something,
02:49you know, giving back to the community, right? Because that's what I believe in. I believe
02:53that I don't care what I have or what I don't have. I am currently working with the Department
02:58of Probation as a mental coordinator. But I am also a youth partnership specialist where
03:07I work with non-profit organizations and within the government as well to advise them on youth
03:14juvenile justice policies. People think that because they have been locked up, their life
03:31is pretty much over. No. That can be the beginning of something greater.
