SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Nineteen-year-old Jayda Jackson couch-surfed her way out of a cycle of alcoholism into higher education.
Tired of being surrounded by alcoholism and immature classmates in Fort Good Hope, Jayda Jackson couch-surfed her way to higher education at Aurora College. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo |
The woman from Fort Good Hope was at Side Door Youth Ministries last weekend, sharing her story with other young people during a conversation on youth homelessness. Jackson said she was adopted and raised by her grandparents and comes from a family of nine siblings. She said high school assignments seemed too easy back home and she didn't want to fall into the bad habits that have plagued her family.
"(Alcohol) is a main problem in my family, and I just couldn't stand to be around it," said Jackson, sitting at a coffee shop Monday afternoon.
Jackson left home at 15-years-old to live with her aunt and uncle in Cold Lake, Alta., to try and stay out of trouble. But she was far away from her friends, which led her to run away.
This had its consequences and she was kicked out.
"I really liked sports at the time, and I really liked music (in Cold Lake). And I got all of that taken away from me because I ran away one night."
She moved to Yellowknife for the first time to live with her biological father and stepmother.
"I was being treated poorly, I barely ate," she said. "I was always stuck babysitting when my parents would throw a party."
She said things went from bad to worse when her stepsister was born and she was expected to watch her.
"They started partying on school days so I would be babysitting until five in the morning," she said.
She said her teachers noticed her showing up late every morning, she said.
"After that my attitude got even worse. I tried living with my biological mom and step-dad in Fort Smith," she said.
"I enjoyed living with them. I lived with them for about a year, and I was able to spend time with my one and only biological sister. What drove me to move away from them was that my mom had personal issues from her past she hasn't moved on from. A lot of days she was just miserable."
Back in Fort Good Hope after her introduction to Yellowknife, she said she argued with her mother and began to form an idea that she'd like to live with roommates and pay her own rent. But things weren't going well at high school, she said. She felt distracted from her classes, and dropped out before finishing.
"That's when I started couch-surfing (in Fort Good Hope)," she said. "I was staying with a friend of mine. I didn't get a whole lot of privacy, and became involved in family issues that I shouldn't have been a part of. I was only there for a month, and then moved to my cousin's."
She said her cousin had a girlfriend who was raising children. When her cousin landed in jail, she helped his girlfriend clean dishes and babysit, she said. Although she said things were getting better, she began using marijuana, alcohol and other narcotics. She hit rock-bottom when she was assaulted by a drunk person, she said.
"I had anxiety and random panic attacks for the next few months," she said.
"And I guess that's what got rid of my attitude."
After several years without a place to call home, she managed to get into student residence at Aurora College and eventually hopes to become a teacher.
"I wanted to do something ... to give back to my community in the future when I eventually move back home. We don't have a lot of aboriginal teachers back home and I think that we need that."
Things have turned around, said Jackson, since she was accepted into student residence at the college in September where she's upgrading to attend the Access Teachers Program - the first step on a path she hopes will take her to a bachelor's of education.
"Now I'm pretty stable ... I'm just so happy now," she said. "Those other times I just wasn't happy. I was going through depression. I was stressed out."
The college offers housing for single students as well as those with families and Jackson said she pays around $315 per month to stay there.
She said she was still couch surfing at the beginning of her studies in Yellowknife in September, since she is only upgrading her high school grades at the moment, although she will be finished in June.
