Homelessness taught me ‘people do want to help’, says US high school grad

A newly minted high school graduate from Texas who endured a period of homelessness, bullying and other adversities before earning a full college scholarship says his experience has taught him that “people do want to help you”.

“It’s not you versus the world,” Zaylin Washington told the Dallas-Fort Worth news station KTVT.

Washington’s story went viral in circles of the internet dedicated to unearthing uplifting news as another teen – Elijah Hogan of New Orleans – recently earned recognition for being named valedictorian of his high school’s graduating class while living at a shelter for unhoused youth.

As the native of Irving, Texas, recounted to KTVT, one of the hardships that Washington overcame growing up was seeing his parents each spend time incarcerated, which landed him in foster care.

He also grappled with bullies in his earlier school years, saying: “People would make fun of me, my clothes were ripped and too big.”

Eventually, in seventh grade (which is the equivalent of Year 8 in England), Washington joined a football team, and there he said he developed a sense of family as well as a support system. “I felt a lot of pressure off my shoulders … like I had finally found a home,” Washington said to KTVT.

But then, he said he spent a significant amount of time unhoused while he was a sophomore at Nimitz high school in Irving. He said he hid his ordeal from his classmates, keeping quiet about the fact that he was among an estimated 4.2 million children and young adults who annually experience homelessness in the US.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 700,000 of those children are unaccompanied minors, meaning they either do not belong to a family or are not at the side of a parent or guardian.

Ultimately, a youth group pastor stepped up and offered Washington a place to live.

Washington said the pastor’s generosity let him focus on his academics and his football in a stable arrangement that he preferred over a return to foster care.

“This was the first time someone chose me – not [me being] forced on them,” Washington told KTVT.

Washington’s classroom performance set the stage for him to receive an offer for a full ride to California’s American River College. He accepted the offer, and he made his aspirations clear in his interview.

“I want to be more successful than anyone – anyone in my whole family,” Washington remarked. “I wanted to complete high school, finish college. I wanted to prove [doubters] wrong.”