“An Evening Jog”
By Anna Gil
[dropcap]8:20PM.[/dropcap] Warm, but windy. She was doing her normal jog around her block, when out of nowhere, a red nose pit bull came out of the shadows barking away. She didn’t pay attention to the barking until she saw the dog, and when she saw the dog, she took off running, like there was no tomorrow.
She was going to run home, but she was so scared she kept running until she reached her high school. She was running fast hoping she would lose the dog. After she made it to her school, she noticed the dog was not following her anymore so she started walking, but she kept looking back because she kept thinking the dog was behind her, wanting to bite her or maybe even kill her.
She jumped the fence at her school and walked around campus. A few minutes later she got a call from her mom. “Hello, donde estas?” her mom asked. “I’m exercising, I’ll be home in a bit,” she replied. “I don’t care si tu estas exercising, te me venes para la
casa!” her mom yelled. “Yes ma,” she said in submission.
She hung up and started walking to jump back over the fence to go home. When she got to the fence she saw a dog walking across the street and fear immediately came over her because it was another red nose pit bull. She knew they were dangerous, so she walked to the school’s gym and jumped the fence behind the gym, near the elementary school and started heading home. When she was a few blocks from her house, she heard two guys yelling at each other.
“B****, you freakin h**, you lied f***** b****!” one guy said. She kept walking. She couldn’t wait to make it home. Then right when she turned the corner she saw another set of guys fighting. When she saw this she started walking faster, scared they might see her and tell her if she told anyone anything they would hurt her, but they didn’t see her as she power walked pass them. Even though she was walking very fast, she got a glimpse of them, fighting like animals. Hitting one another’s heads on the sidewalk and socking each other with so much anger. When she got pass them she decided to jog the rest of the way home. Then she heard a lady scream, “STOP, please leave him alone!”
She started running, and while she was running she had a flash back; that fight reminded her of her brothers fighting. She finally got home and it was around 10 o’clock at night. Her mom was asleep so she got away from the yelling she expected to hear from her mom. The only thing she had to do was jump through the window because her door was locked. When she got in she took off her shoes and tried to relax. She started stretching her legs, trying to breathe. Not knowing what time it was she drifted off to sleep, thinking that was the craziest jog she ever had.
“Stress and a Seizure”
By Chanda Clark
As soon as she got home she went straight next door to apologize for what ever my step dad said or did. We were watching TV when my aunt’s son came over to get one of us because my aunt (his mom) started to have another seizure. She had a seizure because of all the stress that was going on that day and in the past couple of days. I went over there and started talking to her, trying to bring her back to consciousness. My mom called the ambulance (911) and they talked me through it. It was a very scary thing to do, for the first time in my life. When it was over she took some more of her medication that she has for her seizures. I had sent the kids next door with my mom, but when it was over I asked them to come back and they all ran up to her and gave her a hug. Then she thanked me for all the help I gave her.
“Who Are You?”
By Laqusha Locke
It was my senior year of high school, with a diagnosis of senior-idus since my freshman year. It was seven o’clock in the morning so I knew I was going to miss the bus I needed to catch to make it to class on time.
I hurried up and jumped in the shower (I had forgotten that our water took awhile to warm up). Then I jumped back out because the water was freezing cold. I fixed the water to the best temperature that felt best on my hand. When I got out I…well you know the procedure: dry off, put lotion on, brush my teeth, then I hurried up and got dressed. Next was my hair and make-up, which you can’t rush if you want it to look good. “Oh my gosh its eight o’clock already, I’m late, I’m so late!” I said to myself, frustrated.
Then I heard the screechy annoying voice that I had to hear every morning when I woke up. She asked me if I was going to school, knowing that I was. For some reason this person seemed to love adding pressure to my stress. In my mind I was thinking, “Duh I’m going to school you ask me that like every morning, gosh!” but this time I sucked up my frustrations and calmly said, “Yeah, I woke up late.” Then she yelled, “You better hurry up then!” That’s when my patience ran out and I furiously yelled, “I am!” There was so much pressure on me that day. I was running around the house scrabbling through my backpack to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything because I always forget things when I rush. Just to add a little more stress to the situation I had to wake my little brothers up and make sure they got ready for school.
Eight-thirty, I ran out the door and down the street to catch bus 34 on Elm Street, which runs every thirty minutes so I could transfer to bus 38 on Jensen which would take me all the way to my high school. The bus was supposed to be there at 8:45AM. I made it there at about 8:40 so I had to wait five more minutes. Those five minutes took forever because I was in a hurry. Eight-forty-five, the bus pulled up and I quickly got on the bus and sat in the first seat. I needed to catch bus 38 at eight o’clock on the dot. The bus finally pulled up to the stop where I needed to get off, which was at the AM/PM gas station. I got off bus 38 as fast as I could. Then as I was walking to the crosswalk to cross the street, I saw bus 38 cruising down the street, so I ran to the light and pressed the walk button like ten times as fast as I could. I didn’t want to be any later than I already was so I just ran across the street on a green light, I had made it across the street just in time…well so I thought. To my surprise the bus passed me right up—it was unbelievable! I knew the bus driver saw me, I was right there.
I was even more furious and an emotional wreck! My eyes started to get blurry and filled with liquid sorrow, and then there was a flow of warm tears pouring, equally on each of my cheeks, which traveled down my chin and onto my shirt. Then I realized where I was, which was at a bus stop with cars passing by left and right, so I quickly wiped my eyes and held back the rest of my tears because I didn’t want people to see me cry. I started thinking to myself and hoping I would see someone I knew so I could flag them down to give me a ride to school. So I started paying attention to the cars that were passing by. I kept looking and looking and I didn’t see anyone I knew. Getting more frustrated but determined, I kept looking diligently.
Then out of the blue, I saw a car, and it was the same one as my friend’s dad’s car, so I leaped up, and he automatically honked his horn. He pulled over so I ran across the street. I even almost got hit by a car…I guess you can say I really care about my edumacation. LOL. I ran and got in the car. I was so excited I hurried up and put my seat belt on. Then I looked up to my left and I said, “WHO ARE YOU?!”
He said “I’m Bob and who are you?” Then I started to panic and all I could think was, “Jesus!” I calmed down for a few seconds and looked around to see if the locks were electronic but they weren’t. I swung the door open and tried to jump out but I still had my seat belt on. He told me to calm down and shut the door, and that he would pull over to let me out. I was like, “Calm down, you can’t be serious!” I didn’t dare shut the door. I took the seat belt off and dumped out as soon as we were close enough to the curb, and said, “I thought you were someone else!” I walked away with so much joy. My heart was beating rapidly. All I could do was thank my Lord and savior Jesus Christ because anything could have happened to me. I don’t know what would have happened, BUT GOD didn’t allow it to happen and I made it to school safely.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
