“Touched”
In my lifetime, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness common phenomena. Lunar and solar eclipses, planetary alignment, the Halebop comet, earthquakes, shooting stars (and spacejunk) and others. But there is something that happens to me that other people may have a hard time understanding. Every now and then, I have premonitions. Sometimes they’re important, most of the time, they’re not. My premonitions are very similar to the déjà vu’s I have, but in the end, are slightly different. Both varieties happen to “touch” me in different ways.
Premonitions, for me, “develop” at different rates. It can happen in seconds, or take as long as a few months. One time, when I was younger, I was on my way to school when I saw a sofa in the hallway (we lived in an apartment building with three floors). I thought nothing of it until I came home, and it was still in the hallway. I grew weary; an odd feeling brewed in my stomach, but I ignored it.
Until this day I still find it strange that two people were responsible for setting the sofa on fire, thus displacing my family and a few others.
For me, a premonition comes to me in a few ways. In most cases, it feels similar to a daydream, you see it and feel it, but it’s not at all there. A significant moment will stick out and stay there. It may be brief, but I’ve sort of trained myself to notice it. A tick in my nervous system, a sour stomach, or a bad dream at night. My subconscious has a way of making sure I know these things.
-Jaleesa, 21
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A Big Fight
I once had a premonition when I was at the Fresno Fair. I had a gut feeling that there was going to be a big fight at the B95 radio section. So me being in that section I decided to leave that area. I saw some of my friends (who are gang members) walking around fast in a big group, so I knew something was going down. My instincts were right…a fight did go down. And it was big!
-Kevis, 19
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It was the summer of 2004 and my cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews were over at my house for a family event. We had just recently moved into our own house. It was our first house and my siblings and I were excited. We finally had our own space and room to move around. That morning I woke up, drenched in my own sweat from a bad dream. I looked around and spotted the clock on the wall. It was five in the morning.
After the family event, I began feeling sick. I was scared. Then my aunt and uncle whom I had known since I was a baby came to say goodbye because they were going home. They were so happy, because my aunt was four months pregnant and it was their first child. I knew in my heart that something bad was gonna happen. But I was too scared to say anything.
That night I couldn’t sleep. Suddenly the phone rang at one in the morning. My uncle was on the line. I could hear him crying and he was stumbling over his own words. My aunt and my uncle got into an argument when they got home and my aunt took the car and left. A couple of hours passed and my aunt still hadn’t called. My uncle became worried because this had never happened before.
Finally, the phone rang and he picked up. It was the hospital. My aunt had hit a tree and the baby was gone. My aunt was injured badly. This is what I feared. My gut had been right. I blamed myself for not telling them what I dreamed. I could have saved my aunt and her baby. Three months later, my aunt got very sick and passed away. To this day, I still blame myself for not doing something.
-Houa, 15
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Look And Think
I once had a weird dream that stuck out to me. I was on a street and I saw my friend on a bike. A car was turning when my friend rode off the sidewalk and the car hit her. I couldn’t move to go see and then my phone rang in real life.
I said to myself, “Damn it.” I woke up, got my phone, and it was a friend who called to tell me that our friend, Cat, had been hit by a car. I asked on what streets and it happened to on the same street that was in my dream. Maybe premonitions are not so weird or fake. We just have to look and think.
-Omar, 19
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.
