Waiting on the rain
For many children, a rainstorm is nothing special.
Maybe it’s an opportunity to spend the afternoon inside watching movies or playing games. An excuse to debut a new raincoat at school; a chance to splash in puddles.
For Fredrick Bailey, a rainstorm was life.
Bailey, 31, recalls his childhood in LaGrange, Georgia, living in a home without electricity or running water. With both parents suffering from drug addiction and his father often gone, a 12-year-old Bailey placed a bucket on the front porch and prayed for rain – precious water he needed to wash his clothes. One winter night, scrubbing his jeans with rainwater and a bar of soap, Bailey had enough.
“I told myself, I convinced myself, life is better than this,” Bailey says. “And I wanted to experience that better life.”
Today, Bailey is truly experiencing that better life. He credits an intervention from national education nonprofit Communities In Schools (CIS) as the catalyst both academically and on a personal level, that enabled him to change the trajectory of his future.