On Bad Luck

[Chase]

"Pound my knuckles hard against the floor.
My head against the wall.
But I did this to myself.
Assume it's just not worth getting back up
so I'll blame it on bad luck. I'll shake responsibility
and say a hard life did this to me."

Sometimes life hits you so hard you can’t get back up for a while and sometimes you get an unexpected blow to the face. The students here at River Side Academy know these facts all too well. Some are unwelcome in their homes, or some have been removed from the custody of their parents. The children here are not criminals nor are they delinquencies.

River Side Academy is a large, safe and even beautiful campus, located in Salem Virginia. Setup, run and supported by the Division of Youth and Family services, this school is a heaven. Wither the students are here for a short time or they will spend their high school careers here.

"It seems that when I ran away from my past, all my dignity, my faith, my pride got left back.
But now I think it's time I realize self pity's meaningless.
Though I'm 10 feet deep,
I'll claw my way back out from in my grave."

Of course some have made mistakes that they live with or hold memories which they would like to forget. Their stories are not the worst but they are also not the best. Drugs, drinking and abuse maybe be a part of their past but it does not run their future. The school was constructed in 1985 for those who are in the middle. They are not so badly damaged that they need to be consistently under a watchful eye but one must remember they are teenagers. The school is like any other boarding school, the only difference; the children have no home to visit during holidays or summer vacation.

Most of our students are wards of the state, foster child. Taken away from their families or given up by their parents for one reason or another. There was a time when homes were overcrowded and no child really belonged. The school has helped to put a stop to an endless cycle

"But now I realize I'd give anything I have to walk a day in my old shoes.
Wondering what my first smoke would be like, my first fuck, my next fuck up.
The next band that would change my life and it changed my life, and it changed my life."

Again, these students are not in prison, like any high school, Bayside has rules. The campus is not far from the city however. The teens are allowed to hang out at the mall, get summer or weekend jobs or see a movie, as long as they are in by curfew.

Come here to learn, to heal and to most importantly, to be a teenager.

"Pound my knuckles hard against the floor.
My head against the wall.
But I did this to myself.
Assume it's just not worth getting back up
so I'll blame it On Bad Luck.
I'll shake responsibility
and say a hard life did this to me."