By Sophia Jaeger
The Bucs’ Blade
Grand Haven HS
1st Place Division 1, News Writing
Diversity Coverage
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Topic relevant to the school or students and reflects lifestyles, challenges and potentials of those from a diverse background
- Sharp, attention-getting lead grabs reader and arouses curiosity
- Shows thorough reporting skills through research and interviewing
- Effective use of facts/quotes from both primary and secondary sources
- Balanced, fair and sensitive presentation
- Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly
- Proper diction/grammar; use of third person
A bright smile stretches across freshman Chantal Muziranyenge’s face nearly reaching the thin gold hoops that dangle from each ear. She laughs loudly with her face tilted back. Her voice carries the warmth and roundness of something not quite English, the only hint that she is anything beyond a normal high school student. But at the age most of us learned to walk, Muziranyenge fled the Democratic Republic of Congo with her mother to reach safety in Kenya. Once there, they lived in refugee housing, but at the age of three, she was left all alone when her mother died. She had to rely on the kindness of a stranger who took her in for a short time before she was placed in the orphanage Heshima Kenya. “My earliest childhood was a cold place,” Muziranyenge said. “I didn’t get to listen to stories at night or have comfort, that was my childhood.” She spent three years at Heshima Kenya living with girls who had also fled their home countries in hopes of a better future only to find themselves alone in a foreign land. “In the war, when people flee, everyone is about themselves,” Muziranyenge said. “They want to save themselves and everything else comes later. Mothers with children would leave their kids behind just so they come first.” Despite not having a family for most of her childhood, Muziranyenge found refuge with the other girls at the orphanage. “I think we were each others’ God’s candles,” Muziranyenge said. “The stories, they have made them who they are. And we did have a connection because we really had the same situation, the same stories. We became sisters.” When Muziranyenge left the orphanage to live with a family in Kenya she found herself lost once again. The woman who had taken her in acted harsh and made Muziranyenge work with the threat of the wooden spoon looming overhead. “She was not very nice,” said Muziranyenge “I was really happy that I was not living with her anymore.” She was nine years old when she got the news that she was getting a new start in America. Extended Grace in Grand Rapids and the United Nations had partnered to bring her a world away to begin life once more. “It was very emotional for me to leave, but I was excited that I was being helped,” Muziranyenge said. “That I was being accepted into a new country.” When she reached Grand Rapids she joined her first family. In a new country with little knowledge of American culture, she had to orient herself to a completely new way of life. “It was really hard for me,” Muziranyenge said. “Especially because I had to live with different people that had different religions and have to adapt to their ways of life.” Finding a family that worked for Muziranyenge was difficult. She spent years moving to different families and awaiting placement in residential homes throughout West Michigan. “It was really hard, especially as a child changing schools, adapting to different kinds of life,” Muziranyenge said. “My childhood was literally stolen out from me” It wasn’t easy being in a new country with little knowledge of her past or uncertainty for her future. “I used to feel very small, alone and abandoned,” Muziranyenge said. “I used to think a lot of things like, ‘why not another person?’ but of course it happened to me. So I did struggle about that and I had depression for a very long time. I didn’t want to be alive anymore because I don’t have a family, I don’t have anything. I felt sorry for myself.” To help get through these challenging times Muziranyenge forced herself to abandon her childhood. “Especially when I was alone. I had to have the mindset of an adult, think or determine where I’m going to eat,” Muziranyenge said. “And that affected me, that’s the trauma I still have today.” Despite the trouble of finding a family Muziranyenge never blamed her foster parents for the issues. “Because of my past experience, I didn’t know how to handle it.” Muziranyenge said “And they didn’t know how to handle it, but we tried to talk it out, tried to work out that I can’t go there without telling them and I didn’t know why that was because I was on my own for a very long time. So I thought they just told me, I’m not gonna let them do that. But I was wrong, just because I didn’t make that happen.” Two years ago Muziranyenge moved to Grand Haven to live with a new foster family because the previous one wasn’t the right fit. Here she slowly learned what it meant to rely on someone else and to truly have parents for the first time in a long while. But even with the hope of a new home and a steady life, Muziranyenge battles the need to be in control and she found herself at ends with the family she lived with in Grand Haven. “We always have disagreements just because we had a different idea of what a home is,” Muziranyenge said. Muziranyenge must start over once more. This winter she will leave Grand Haven High School and her current family to live in a residential home in Grand Rapids. Despite this, Muziranyenge looks to the future and hopes of helping others with stories like her own. “This experience has made me who I am,” Muziranyenge said. “It has made me really strong, and being able to make decisions, and being able to be more independent, and knowing that the most important thing, especially for me right now, is education because I know I can use it to change the world and change my life.”