Kudos to Michael Jacobson's piece about being a teenager in foster care. The episode aired on NPR's KUOW, Seattle, just this afternoon and it stopped me in my tracks. I came to a complete stop in what I was doing to listen to every word he had to say. Moving in its own right, it also brought back memories of when I was a teenager in foster care more than a half-century ago (when things were even less enligtened than they are now, I hasten to add, e.g., no state scholarships; legal adulthood began at 21 but one was cut loose upon turning 18, etc.) Nonetheless, I graduated high school, went to college on my own dime after working two years and living in furnished rooms, served in the Army as an officer, went to graduate school on the GI Bill and had a career that led to a reasonably comfortable retirement. Still, the way I felt when I was 17 and facing emnacipation - mainly, scared almost shitless - was brought back to me loud and clear in Michael's piece. Too bad I'm 3000 miles away; he's a kid I'd want to know! Good luck! Go to school, damn it!