“I am doing public service hours because I got in trouble for fighting. I went through some hard things when I was young. I am slowly getting better. I run for fun and draw the thoughts in my head. I want to go into the Air Force and be a nurse and then a traveling nurse when I get out. 

I live with my grandma and nana, my great-great aunt. It is just the three of us. They have taught me to be respectful and I have calmed down a lot. I am going to buy my grandma a big house with a lot of Cadillacs. She wants one for every day of the month.

I am scared of the water, but I want to be cremated in a mermaid suit and have my ashes scattered on the beach so I can one day float like a mermaid on the sea.

(This is part of a series of stories from Prichard, Alabama, a once-thriving city on the edge of Mobile. Many people have moved away from Prichard and it struggles with difficult issues frogm violence, drugs, and education to city government, employment, transportation, and public water. But Prichard is also a reminder that communities are more than the stories of shootings and failures reported every night on the news. It is more than crime statistics and a proud past. There are good people who haven’t given up or are coming back home to Prichard. They have hope and are giving themselves to make a difference. I hope Prichard proves that positive change comes from people like this taking action. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.)