Shedding Adult Responsibilities Allows Teen to Focus on School

August 1, 2025

By the time Maya moved into Mercy Home, it had been months since she had last been to school. It was her senior year, and she should have been focused on her future. Instead, her whole life was falling apart.

Things in Maya’s life had never been easy. Both of her parents struggled with addiction issues. When Maya was in elementary school, her father had a fatal drug overdose. Her mother would go through periods of recovery, but she always seemed to relapse.

Maya always felt a strong sense of responsibility for her parents, and especially for her mother after her father died.

“I always felt like the adult in the house, even though I was the kid,” she explained. “I was always worried about things like bills and household responsibilities. It made it hard to relate to other kids and for them to relate to me.”

Even when Maya’s mother wasn’t using drugs, she still struggled to keep a job or a stable place to live. They moved often, and their apartments were often rundown and in dangerous neighborhoods.

Maya grew up feeling isolated. She was never at one school for long, and anxiety about her home situation made it hard for her to form friendships. While her peers participated in sports or clubs, she rushed home to make sure there was food in the house, that bills were paid, and sometimes, that her mother was still alive.

“I don’t think I fully realized how much my father’s death affected me until I was older,” she said. “But it made me very aware that my mom could die at any time, too. And I was terrified of being left alone.”

As soon as Maya was old enough, she got a job at a local grocery store. The additional, steady income the responsible teenager brought in alleviated some of the family’s financial concerns. Maya picked up as many hours as she could. But that meant her schoolwork often suffered.

“I began to prioritize work and making money,” she said. “My mom had relapsed again and wasn’t working. I knew that we could be evicted, and with that hanging over my head, it was hard to even think about school.”

Maya was usually a pretty good student. She often got As or Bs in her classes and enjoyed school. But as her work hours increased, she put less effort into her homework. Soon, she began skipping school to pick up more shifts to make ends meet. While it was the most financially secure Maya had felt in her life, she was soon faced with the fact that her dreams of going to college were unlikely to come true.

Maya was told that she was in danger in failing every class, which meant she wouldn’t graduate. This news made her give up on the idea of school entirely.

“I figured there was no way I would ever catch up in time to graduate,” she said. “So I just stopped going to school. I figured that at least I could support myself and my mom, even if I didn’t know what that meant for my future long term.”

Growing up, Maya dreamed of becoming an accountant. She was always good at math, and when employees from a local accounting firm visited her class on career day, she immediately knew what she wanted to do. But she also knew it would take a college degree to get there—and now that seemed impossible.

Maya’s future may have been permanently derailed had she not heard some of her coworkers at the grocery store talking about Mercy Home.

“One of the ladies I worked with had a nephew at Mercy Home, and she was telling everyone how much it helped him,” Maya said. “I got curious and decided to look up what Mercy was all about. I thought maybe they could help me, too.”

Maya reached out to our admissions department and, after speaking with one of our coworkers, knew that if there was any way for her to get her life back on track, it would be at Mercy Home. She also found out that our coworkers could help connect her mom with resources to help overcome her addiction, which made her feel confident that coming to our Home was the right decision.

After moving in, Maya wanted to get back in school. Her education resources coordinator found a school where she could get more individualized attention so she could catch up more quickly. She was also assigned a tutor who helped her do her homework every night.

“I was worried that I had permanently messed up my future,” Maya said. “But staff reassured me that they would support me every step of the way and that it was never too late to turn things around.”

Maya’s hard work paid off. Even though she had to delay her graduation by a year, she’s on track to graduate this spring. She plans on going to community college and continuing to live at Mercy Home so she can get all the support she needs before eventually transferring to a four-year college.

“Before Mercy Home, I was hopeless about my future,” Maya said. “Now I know that anything is possible for me!”

Please note: Because we care deeply about protecting our children’s privacy, the names and certain identifying details in this story have been changed.