“Just had difficult times with family and just want to have my permanent place instead of being house to house,” said 18-year-old Jeremy De Anda.“It was hard at first, but you tend to get used to it and somehow you got to find a way to make it easy,” De Anda said.
“I would wake up at five in the morning to get ready. The bus and left to go at 6:30 in and I’d get to school by 7:45,” Rodriguez said. In May, De Anda graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. Soliz graduated from Sydney Lanier High School, and Rodriguez graduated from Oliver Wendell Holmes High School.“They were just congratulating me. My friend, she got me this bracelet,” Rodriguez said, holding up her wrist. “It has a cross on it. They gave me some cards too.”“So I could still, you know, blend in life. I wouldn’t say normal life, you know, but still blending. No matter how much I was going through, I still want to go.