Student Stories

"I have Bipolar, Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD. My life hasn’t always been easy. I had been to other schools and was in DCF custody for a couple of years before coming to Lighthouse.

When I first came here, I didn’t know what to think because I had not been in a school that had so many different kids with different diagnoses and ethnicity. 

I observed right away how people treated each other and the kids here. I wasn’t ready for that because I don’t like change. I had a hard time trusting people and didn’t open up much. I always had a hard time getting my words out so my emotions would build up and then I would yell and scream. Slowly, I began letting my emotions out by sharing with people that I was starting to trust. I developed a lot of relationships with staff here and they really helped me to trust others.

I’ve had a hard time this year because my father died, and I have been dealing with his death. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. It helped to have people here to talk to. I finally realized that I built a family here at school. People accepted me for who I am and loved me. The biggest thing Lighthouse taught me was to be myself and to not let things people said to me affect me. 

My advice to kids here is staff may be hard on you, but they are doing it for your own good. They want you to reach your goals and they believe in you that you can. They are your family, and they won’t judge you. I want to thank my mother for giving birth to me and for taking care of me and believing in me. My mom accepts me for who I am even when she is hard on me. 

I plan to go into cosmetology after leaving here. I plan on helping my mother and working this summer with kids and teaching them coping skills. 

Thank you, Lighthouse, for everything."  —D.B

 “When I started at Lighthouse I was anxious, scared, and worried. My old school was too big and made me feel unsafe. It took me almost a year to trust staff at Lighthouse, but I can trust that staff want what is best for me. Now the staff see that I am funny, kind, and caring. I hope to graduate from Lighthouse because I don’t want to leave here because I like school now.” —-A.L

"I put [staff] through hell and not only did they say every day is a fresh start, they actually meant it. Eventually it showed me that they weren’t going to give up on me and that I might as well try… Lighthouse showed me what the expectations were, what work I had to do, but then gave me the space to do things at my own pace. Because of that, I was able to do things because I wanted to do them, not because other people made me do it, and for me that makes all the difference.” - S.J