It's not often you hear a personal story about how your work has influenced a person's life. But when you do, it's certainly inspiring and moving.

Today was one of those rare moments.

As some of you already know, I was strongly moved by learning about the downfalls of the present foster care system (even with all that is being done), and this has inspired me to make a short film outlining the trenches that the foster youth go through when they reach that horrid point in their life when they must ?age out'. Immediately seeing an opportunity for a narrative short (instead of a traditional documentary), I moved forward with the idea, making the short film entitled 18 and Out.

We have made what I believe to be a strong and compelling story, and everyone involved was purely dedicated to making it the best that it can be. And, with the minimal resources available to us, we have done a compelling job.

Today was another reinforcement of that.

A gentleman residing in Florida, with whom I have been corresponding over some time, has sent me an email today notifying me of the following news.

".being inspired by your short about 18 And Out, I took in a young man who is 18 and grew up majority of his life in foster care, and at 18 was given $300 and sent out into the world. It is odd how life can imitate art at times. I checked his story out through my own investigation and invited him to come and stay at my home to give him his first opportunity of a normal life and get him on his own, in a more gradual way than the system did for him. He's a good kid, his name is Chris. Just had a lot of hard breaks in life. But, because of your short, I had empathy for his situation and felt compelled to do this. Thank you for making that film. It was heart felt and inspiring. Chris had only been here in Florida 3 weeks and was homeless because his roommate he had met in foster care was giving up and relocating back to Nebraska, leaving Chris with no way to live here. This was the first time in his 18 yrs of life, since he was 8 that he had his own room to sleep in.
 
So kudos to you for helping me to see what direction I needed to take." - RW

Life can seemingly take us in so many different directions, and who is to decide which direction is best? But when we follow our intuition, no matter what course fate sets out for us, we will always end up in the right place.

~ Misha Zubarev