Meet Barbara, a standout teen in Yerington

At just 15, Barbara C. is one of the most forward-thinking, intelligent people many of us have met. Through her more than seven years at the Club, she’s grown up to be a compassionate, empathetic young woman. It’s these characteristics that drive her goals, and that motivated her to run for Youth of the Year.

Barbara started attending the Club when she was eight years old. She has just moved to Yerington, and her parents wanted a place where she and her brother, Rodrigo, could socialize and make some friends before the new school year began. Before coming to Yerington, Barbara and her family lived in Jalisco, Mexico. Immigrating for her parents’ work, they found themselves in nearby Smith Valley before moving to their permanent home a valley over.

“I remember getting there at 6 in the morning, putting our stuff in out cubbies, and rushing to the gym to play basketball,” Barbara said. “Soon enough, others came and more areas opened up. It was like exploring a whole new world.”

Barbara stuck close to her brother in their early days at the Club. Still perfecting the language herself, Barbara had to translate everything for her brother who was just getting ready to enter kindergarten. She still made sure she had fun, learned, and met as many new people as she could.

“I remember getting sad whenever the time came that my mom picked us up. Even now, seven years later, I still feel upset when my mom picks me up.”

Her Club adventure hasn’t been a linear line. In fact, there were two years where Barbara didn’t attend. Barbara tore her ACL around the age of 12, and as she was healing from that one, injured her second one. This took away Barbara’s sports and her ability to get around easily. She frequently found herself stuck at home with not much to do. While she worked through her physical struggles, she began to struggle mentally too. On crutches and in full leg braces, Barbara didn’t have much to look forward to, and her time spent with friends was minimal.

“My life felt like Groundhog Day. I was living the same, boring, uneventful day over and over and over again.”

It hit Barbara hard. She would sleep, wake up, go to school, go home and go to sleep. Her life was on repeat. She broke down when it got to be too much, sobbing because she felt so alone. All the while, she was growing apart from the Club, not sure when or how to return.

“Those two summers I spent away from my Boys & Girls Club were the two most depressing summers I’ve ever experienced.”

As she finished recovering, getting off her crutches and busting loose from her braces, her freshman year was coming to a close. High school had been a good transition for her. Barbara is smart, and she enjoyed the new challenges. With the weather getting warmer, it was time to figure out what she wanted to do with her summer. That’s when she got her sign it was time to come back to the Club. The Comstock Youth Worker program had 12 available positions in Lyon County, and she heard the Club was one of the places she could work. She went right to the person in charge, got the paperwork and had it turned in the next morning. She got accepted into the program and even got placed with Boys & Girls Clubs of Mason Valley. It was the perfect opportunity to get back to a place that felt like home.

Through her work, Barbara got to make connections with younger members, picked up tons of job skills and even made a little money to spend and save. But as Barbara will tell you, the biggest benefit was getting to attend the Teen Center again as a member herself before and after her shifts. She hadn’t felt that happy since before her leg injuries, and her longtime friends and family members could see it, too.

With a newfound appreciation for what Boys & Girls Club can mean to someone, Barbara now wants to advocate for youth who have language or emotional barriers, or both. Barbara had to pick up English when her family moved from Mexico to the United States. Not being able to communicate with those around her or even fully grasp her new atmosphere drove her to be hyper-competitive. It was how she knew to express herself. Being included in anything and everything was also a big mental push for Barbara. She didn’t want to be left out of anything because she was afraid of being left behind and left alone.

All of these conflicting feelings in Barbara’s mind, along with her young age and inability to full comprehend any of it, drove her to have a very short temper and develop anger issues. She couldn’t understand her emotions or communicate well with others around her. She desperately wanted to be likeable, but her sensitivity and temper caused her to build a wall instead, doing the exact opposite of what she wanted. When she started attending the Club, she all of a sudden had mentors and resources, all the while building the social skills she’d been lacking at a young age.

“I slowly began to realize that not only do I push people away, but I was also negatively affecting myself,” Barbara said. “I decided I didn’t want to be that bother anymore. Instead, I rebuilt who I was from the ground up, questioned my perspective on everything and started anew.”

Barbara worked on her anger, an emotion 20% of young people have struggle to handle in a healthy way. She has made significant strides, and continued to focus on it even during her recovery away from the Club.

“In her time at the Club I have witnessed a lot of change in her interests,” Tommy Crowder, a longtime Club employee who used to run the Teen Center, said. “she was a very athletic member when I first met her, always playing knockout in the gym and giving her all in team sports. But as time went on she transitioned from using her physicality to using her voice. She was always an intelligent member, but she has evolved into an effective and strong leader.”

Using her new knowledge, coping skills and leadership values, Barbara wants to be able to put more Boys & Girls Clubs in more areas, helping youth adjust to life in a new environment. She wants the same mentors and resources available to her to be available to everyone. She wants everyone to have the same chance to find their happier and healthy selves.

“I want a future where, instead of getting mocked whenever you try to open up, you feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. Most importantly, I want to make sure that no one feels isolated, abandoned or alone.”