Personal Narrative: How Launch Changed My Life

When I close my eyes and think about my life I think about how much Launch has changed me as a person. One day at lunch someone was doing a presentation on the stage. When I went up to see what the slideshow was about I ended up signing my name on a sign-up sheet to become an official Launch member. After I had gone to a few meetings I developed an idea of how Launch meetings generally went and what to expect. Soon I was a regular at all of the meetings and events that had to do with Launch. At the beginning of the next year it was time to begin preparing for the annual T.I. Camp, which everyone, including me, was excited about! After attending T.I. Camp as a participant for two years I decided to send in an application for youth staff, which

Todd Barlow, the youth advisor in charge of Launch, was on stage with a slideshow about what Launch was. He explained the details about being a member of Launch, and I was immediately intrigued. He invited me to the annual Launch Halloween Party that was going on later that evening at the designated Launch office. I never expected that my decision to go to a Halloween party would change my life and me as a person. During the party I met several current Launch members and I had begun to feel like I was going to look forward to being associated with Launch forever. In this case, forever was going to last only my four years of high school. At my first official meeting the majority of the time was used to plan the upcoming Greenlight Walk happening in Jackson. During the walk we would be walking around Jackson to raise awareness about the problems faced by youth living on the streets. The next night was the walk and I had never felt such satisfaction. It felt incredible to know that I had made a difference, no matter how small, in my community. I wanted that feeling to last forever. It seemed incredible that one decision, which had seemed so simple, has sparked a passion in me that will never burn out. This small decision changed how I saw and processed everything around