Echo's Story

This past week I had the honor of doing a senior photo shoot. She was one of the deserving people nominated during my deserving person contest. Let me tell you, she most definitely deserved it and so much more. You wouldn't know it by looking at her but she has been dealt a pretty rough hand. I was given permission to tell her story after her shoot.

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Echo is currently a Senior at Central High School

who has a love for arts of all kinds; including music, photography, and watercolor. After she graduates in December she plans on attending school for Culinary Arts (See arts of all kinds) and at one point dreamed of opening her own bakery. Sounds pretty typical, senior in high school planning for college... Right? Well she is not your average senior.

Echo's Freshman year of school, she pretty much flunked out. By some miracle, she was able to get caught back up and is now graduating EARLY! It is hard enough to graduate, but to go from falling behind to graduating early, that is INSPIRATIONAL to say the least.

What makes this even more amazing is Echo has been homeless on and off for a long time. Currently and for the past 2 years she has been staying with a host family who I can say without even knowing them, love her as she was their own. But before meeting Trista and Brian, she had been staying at The House which is a safe place for homeless teens here in Grand Junction, CO. I am sure you are thinking "why wasn't she being taken care of by the state and in foster care?"; Well Echo refused to be a part of that system and can you blame her? Not all stories from foster care are bright and shiny.

Even with ALL of this going on Echo also finds time to make a living for herself by working at Graff Dairy. *Side Note**If you haven't been there you should drop everything and go RIGHT NOW! They have amazing homemade Ice Cream and sell my favorite... Chicago Dogs! Most importantly, they employ other homeless teens from the valley to help them get on their feet!

Echo has dealt with so much more than most kids can say by her age. Mental health issues in the family, the death of a parent, having to learn to care for herself, making the decision to stay at The House rather than go into a system that she did not want to be a part of, staying with a family she did not know, flunking Freshman year then having a HUGE come back with early graduation, working, and so much more. This girl i am telling you now is going to do BIG things with her life.

I want to wish her good luck on her journey and thank her for sharing her story. I hope one day you get to go to London and see everything you want to see and experience in life. You should be proud of yourself for overcoming the obstacles you have and for continuing to have dreams. Never change that!