During the Sept. 9 Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day in 100 Mile House, Shirlana Vance read out the following speech that she had prepared for the occasion.
Shirlana, who has FASD, is a recent graduate of the Youth Employment Services (YES) program offered by CFEC.
By Shirlana Vance
FASD can be a very paralyzing, debilitating disability. It is sometimes an everyday struggle just to get through life. And it can tear your life apart.
It holds you back, slows you down, and sets you apart from everyone else. It can take your children away, your family and even your friends.
It is a very cruel life-altering disability and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.
It's definitely not the ideal way to live life. You have to live everyday the same. There's no room for spontaneity, and no room for mistakes.
But with time, dedication, patience and love and consistency, a FASD-disabled person can live a life that is theirs. Every disabled child has special strengths and abilities; you just have to take the time to bring it out of them.
Confidence is key most definitely, along with structure and stability. It takes a very strong-willed patient and loving parent, sibling and friend to deal with a brain-damaged person with FASD.
I was very blessed in receiving two such dedicated parents myself and they helped teach me to grow to the best of my strengths and abilities, and they have made me the strong person I am today.
My mission is to work hard at providing a safe, healthy, happy, stable and structured environment for my daughter, as well as myself, to be the happy positive person I know I am capable of being, to reach for the stars and shoot for the moon and attain all the information and knowledge I am interested in.
I want to open myself up to new opportunities, to drink everything in, and learn from my faults and mistakes. I want to understand that now is the time to make mistakes to take risks and succeed from it all.
I vow to accept the mistakes and regrets I have made in the past and learn from them and help others not to make the same mistakes. I vow to help people with the knowledge I've learned in my short years on Earth and to help them grow and accept the pain of the past and let them know that "our past does not dictate our future."
The future is forever changing and I will be prepared for any curve balls life decides to pitch my way.
In the next three years, I plan to graduate and get my early childcare degree to work in a daycare. I want to work in a daycare for a minimum of a year before I broaden my range and move on to getting my schooling to be a social worker.
Then later, I want to be a children's advocate to help the kids like me who grew up and were affected by the system. I want to let them know there will be better days.
By 25, I plan to have my daughter back with me full time, and in the meantime, I will work hard to ensure our happy future together so I can give her the best life possible and the life she deserves.
I will teach her to be honest, open, spiritual, centred, and guided. I will work every day to empower her and help her attain the goals and dreams she has for her life.
I will live my life to the best and fullest for my daughter.
This I vow and this I will standby.