What it's like to be teen exposed to violence
To start with, it is 12 years old, and nobody understands that your mind is not fully developed. It is going to school with no food. It is walking to school even when the distance is far. It lacks the necessary amenities.
It is crying all night for the sake of your mother. It is receiving punches on the nose in the evening instead of getting help with homework. It is learning how to become a man at an early age. It is learning how to pull the trigger even when you know it is wrong. It is having a hot temper. It is violent at school. It is unable to show respect to others.
It has the desire to run away from home and school. It is falling in love with drugs and violence at an early age. It is engaging in premarital sex. It is learning how to rape. It loves crime more than school. It is chaos and burglary. Finally, it is serving terms in juvenile prisons in the name of rehabilitation.
The inspiration behind the above poem draws from the fact that there are people around in the various neighborhoods especially children who undergo exposure to violence and thus develop certain traits. These children suffer especially in social settings like schools, but people fail to understand them.
Therefore, they end up leaving school and engage in crime. The mistake does not emanate from these children but rather from the parents back at home who expose them to drugs, violence, and abuse. Some of them even suffer rape from their fathers and mothers in the process.
They also see their fathers beat up their mothers and assault them sexually at times thus destabilizing them psychologically. Discussing the outcomes of such exposure makes the society enlightened on these issues and therefore do not discriminate against such children.
The community can counsel these children with this kind of background information so that they grow up into responsible adults. The recent shootings in America by students are subject to exposure to violence at home at a tender age.