Steven Titus:  

I grew up in Oakland and attended Allendale Elementary (K-6) and Hamilton Jr High (7-9). It was a middleclass and very diverse neighborhood. I had classmates I had grown up with and knew well. My social structure was very stable. I had good friends, had girlfriends and played a lot of sports. I had friends of all races and backgrounds. Academically, I was an honor roll student. I was looking forward to going to Fremont High. Suddenly, in the summer, my parents decided to move to Castro Valley. Castro Valley was a big culture shock for me as Castro Valley was not very diverse. There was one black student at the school when I began my sophomore year and he was a senior. The next two years, no blacks. One of my neighbors actually put up a for sale sign at their house when a black family moved in across the street from them and lobbied the neighbors to shun them. Since I entered CVHS as a sophomore and knew not a single soul, I went through a very awkward stage. Not only that, I was younger than most of my classmates. As time passes, a year is nothing of course, but back then it was a lot. So my sophomore year was very tough socially. In the summer between my sophomore and junior year my father was killed in an accident. I was 15 and the oldest child with a brother 12, a sister 10 and a brother who was just 2. Receiving no help from any family members, I became a "father/brother". Although I was only 15, my mother had me driving for errands and dropping my little brother at day care. It seemed that everything had collapsed and my life was very confusing. My academics suffered, my complexion was horrible, Family life was hard and I was socially awkward. I had no idea how all of this was affecting me and there were no outlets for help or counseling that I knew of. Since I had left my social structure of friends behind in Oakland, I really had few good friends to help me through this. I am sure that most of the friends I made at CVHS realized any of this was going on. There was no life insurance on my dad and the settlement from the industrial accident was slow in coming, so we were also very much a low-income family. Junior year pretty much sucked, too. My senior year at CVHS was a little better. Friendships became better, academically...Expand for more