Deep skies

The deployment in MYRC was such an eye-opener to me. I'm not going to lie, I dreaded the deployment before hand, but when I was at the actual exposure, I found myself being amazed and entertained by the youths in the center. The first thing we did was the introduction. During the introduction, the youths in conflict with the law were tasked to state their name, a little information about their family, their crime as to why they're being kept in MYRC, and a special talent. Every time someone would state their crime, I'd inwardly cringe and wonder to myself what lead these kids to commit those crimes at such a young age. After the introduction, we played, we danced, and we interacted for a while, before we had this circle session divided into two. At first, I was actually just waiting for the dismissal, and thought to myself how time seems to be so slow in MYRC. However, when I got to talk to some of the youth boys, I found myself having fun with the conversation. What I realized is that how their crimes seem to be so normal for them. I wouldn't say they are proud to the things that they have committed, but they aren't exactly embarrassed about it either. With this, I late noticed how they seem to not know the things that they were doing. I wouldn't say that they didn't know that they were killing somebody at that time, but the fact that they're really young when they did the offenses, and most of them weren't exactly raised in proper guidance and nurture by their parents, I would say that those youths didn't know then how wrong their actions were. The next thing I noticed upon listening to their stories is how they're kids who just made the wrong choices. Granted – Everybody makes mistakes, but theirs is something that they can't turn their backs on anymore. These kids are actually the ones really misinterpreted badly by the society. As I said earlier, growing up, they didn't have the proper guidance, so in effect, they didn't exactly make the ideal decisions either. While one decided to follow his cousin's action and murder two people, one stole an earring because that's what his group of friends do. In other words, some of these kids made the wrong decision to just associate themselves with a wrong choice of friends because they seem to lack the sense of belongingness that should have been felt in the family. Aside from this, I also learned that there are two directions that they would go to once they're done with MYRC – Either the judge would sentence them to the city jail along with the adults, or they would be set free to the real world. While some, due to the degree of their crimes, would unfortunately be surely sent to jail, some had chances. To this, asked some of them as to how they plan to direct their lives at the outside world, and to my surprise, they told me – without a beat – that they want to finish school, as hard as it may seem, and to get a decent paying job that would allow them to support themselves and their families.

After the exposure, I made it a point to talk to my father who also happens to be a lawyer. I told him some of the offenses that the boys made, and he told me the possibilities as to how their hearings would go. It really broke my heart to hear that some would mostly go to jail, like what I said earlier, I believe with all of me that the boys there are really just kids who seemed to lost direction, and who seemed to have made the wrong choices. It's really unfortunate that no matter how bad they want to change their lives now, they will be tied forever to a place that would probably further damaged them on the inside. But for the others, however, who still had a chance to make things right.. I'm really praying my hardest for them. Someday, when I reach my dreams of being a lawyer, I promise to go back to MYRC, and help the youth direct their lives with all my heart.