Country music artist, Jimmy Wayne, has been a strong advocate for youth aging out of foster care — because he was one of them. In Jimmy Wayne’s biography, WALK TO BEAUTIFUL: The Power of Love and a Homeless Kid Who Found the Way, he details his chaotic childhood of abandonment, homelessness, and juvenile delinquency.
As a young child, he witnessed more than many adults, including a horrific brutal attack of a man he knew. What was interesting to me in reading Jimmy Wayne’s biography was that as he described his experiences, I was able to see his fear response consistently in his childhood.
As time went on in his chaotic upbringing, his survival tactics changed somewhat because they had to. He was making grown-up survival decisions at such a young age. Although he had stolen occasionally so he and his sister could eat, Jimmy knew he couldn’t rely on the adults in his life to meet his needs, and he began making money on his own anyway he could — thus, developing a work ethic that would change his life.
At age 13, he was abandoned by his mother at a bus station in Florida in the middle of the night and told to find his way home. By the time he was placed into the foster care system, his abandonment issues had caused so much resentment in him that he took to the streets instead of putting any type of trust into a foster family.
Throughout Jimmy Wayne’s biography, he amazed me at how he used his self-reliance and resourcefulness while he was homeless. He survived by finding odd jobs to buy food — but when he knocked on the door of an elderly couple and asked to mow their lawn — his life changed forever. Jimmy eventually moved in with Russell and Bea Costner and the rest is history…
See what else I have to say about Jimmy Wayne’s biography
Link to my YouTube video review on Jimmy Wayne’s biography.
Read Jimmy Wayne’s biography, WALK TO BEAUTIFUL
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