This Is Me

THIS IS ME
by a young person at CSTC, age 12

I am painting my self-portrait.
For this work I have chosen the colors of black
for the dark times and yellow for the good times.

The dark times
are when I struggle.
The 5 places I’ve been that haven’t worked.

The good times are when I’m at home
and when I’m happy.
My mom, my brother,
my pets, my family.
They just make me feel
more positive.

The background of my self-portrait will have fire:
a big forest fire,
because at the time,
I was going through struggles
and the times I’ve been having here are a struggle,
and I’m still working on getting better.

In my self-portrait, I will be holding a picture of my baby brother
for the reason that I never get to see him
because he died.
His picture will make me feel happy.
He was one time here in this world,
and he was here for twelve hours and tried to survive,
but he couldn’t.

In my self-portrait, my eyes will look like a python’s eyes:
Cool and blue.

When people see my self-portrait, I think they will say,
this is inspiring, because they may have gone through it.

I would like to give my self-portrait to my mom
because I appreciate the way she helps me.
The title of my self-portrait will be, This is Me.

Dedicated to my mom