When I was 10 my parents separated. The divorce was one of the biggest things in my life. I was always angry and very sad. My parents� split led me to acting out. I was extremely disrespectful to everyone: my teachers, my parents, my sister, my grandma and basically everyone.
My parents dealt with the divorce by drinking. Their drinking always made me so mad and so angry. They never came home and they always fought when they were intoxicated.
My disrespect and negativity worsened over the years. My family tried everything. They tried pills and counselors. When I was 13, I went to a local mental health hospital. My disrespect towards adults got to the point where my parents� friends wouldn�t invite my parents anywhere because of me.
In November of 2015, my parents sent me to a house out in Middleton called The Idaho Youth Ranch. Who would have ever thought that was a real place!
In the beginning of the Ranch, I thought disobeying the rules and not ever listening was going to help me get out sooner.
A few months into being at the Ranch, I wanted nothing but to say, �I�m done, I�m not going to try anymore.� I was so disrespectful to all the staff. I would say very cruel and hurtful things to them. When I didn�t get my way, I had no filter and I took my anger of being somewhere other than home out on the people who were trying to help. It was about 3 months into the program when I decided I wanted to go home. Me and my friend at the Ranch thought, �NO, we are going to do this successfully- our parents didn�t send us here for nothing!�
I finally started biting my tongue, staying out of drama where I went to school, stopped disrespecting staff and just went with this thing called my Service Plan, which was basically all the goals I needed to achieve before I graduated the program. As the date of me leaving came closer, I started to get super excited but also very depressed and upset. It was crazy to think nine months ago I was dropped off at this house with all this anger and negativity towards everything, and now I�m sad that I'm leaving all the people I grew close to.
They surprised me with the very first coin ceremony at the Hands of Promise Ranch. A coin ceremony is where an alumni coin is passed around to everyone in the room and they all put good and positive thoughts into it. It just felt so unreal to be the first person to finish this program.
On July 9th, one of my favorite staff members got the call saying, �Hannah�s parents are here.� I really couldn�t believe today was my last day of all of this. Saying my goodbyes was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I had been with all these people who saw me at my worst and my best. I got so close to them and now I had to say goodbye.
The Ranch helped me in more ways than one. If I had never gone I'd more than likely still be on the same dead end road I was on before. Now I know when to separate myself from a situation. Where before I�d fight to get my way, now I know when I need to stop and take a moment to pause and keep my thoughts to myself.
Ever since I left, school is going way better. Family communication is going way better, too. If it wasn�t for the Ranch not just working with me but working with my parents, life would be so much different. Knowing my parents and I were getting the same treatment helped because I knew things would actually change because it would be all of us working as a team.
I never thought I would appreciate the Ranch and everything they did for me, but now that I think about it my life would be 100 percent different if I had never gone. I don�t know how to even say thank you for the Ranch being in my life. I now call myself an alumni and the very first graduate of the new Hands of Promise Campus. I�m thankful for everything they did to help me grow in the right direction and never let me give up or fail.
