“This book is dedicated to the staff at Trahey, from 2015-2017, on the Monroe Campus for Hillside Children’s Center. It was at Hillside that I began to understand that life could be okay, if it wasn’t for my staff, I probably wouldn’t be alive right now.”
That passage opens Someday It Will Get Better, a collection of poetry published in June by Scarlett Foss. As the dedication suggests, Foss’ poems follow that maxim for all writers: write what you know.
“It’s a lot of darker poetry from when I was a teenager,” recalls Foss, who received residential treatment for two years. “I was going through some bad times. I was self-harming every day and dealing with a lot of misplaced guilt. But I always knew, especially once I got to Hillside, that I was on a road to get better. That’s where the title comes from.”
Now 23, Foss (who uses “they/them” pronouns) is channeling their life experiences into writing and other passions—most notably, a family of their own. They and their husband, Matthew, were married in 2018, and their son Orion was born two years later. “Right in the middle of the pandemic,” they say with a laugh. “He is my absolute world. Orion is our rainbow.”
Thanks to their first-hand awareness of the need for foster parents, Foss and their husband are also training with Hillside to become a foster family. “We’re in this together,” they say. “My husband and I, we’ve both been through a lot in our lives and we’re like, ‘You know what? We need to help these people. So let’s see what we can do.’”
Foss calls their time at Hillside “a turning point in my life. When I was there, I graduated from high school a year early. I started taking my writing more seriously. It was amazing to get the help that I needed.”
They have more ideas for future books, including more poetry. “I would say I’m still a work in progress—I’m still trying to work through a lot of stuff,” Foss says. “But I have all the skills that Hillside gave me.”
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