By Derick Blakes | Founder, Confirmation Nation Inc.

Growing up, nobody handed me a manual on how to become a man. There wasn’t a neatly organized lesson plan explaining responsibility, financial stability, emotional maturity, or how to build a healthy family. I learned what I could from the environment around me, and much of what I learned was how to survive.

Survival is an interesting teacher. It teaches you to recognize danger, adapt quickly, and protect yourself. But it doesn’t necessarily teach you how to build a future. You can become exceptionally good at surviving circumstances you were never supposed to endure and still struggle with the ordinary responsibilities of adulthood.

I know because I’ve lived it.

Growing up in foster care and experiencing family instability shaped how I understood the world. For years, I confused getting through another day with actually moving forward. Those are two very different accomplishments.

As I grew older, became a father, and began taking my relationship with God seriously, I started recognizing something important: my past could explain parts of my life, but it didn’t have to determine the rest of it.

And that realization brought another question.

What about the young adults who are standing where I once stood?

Every year, young people leave foster care, group homes, and unstable environments carrying expectations they may never have been prepared to meet. They’re expected to find employment, manage finances, communicate professionally, and make responsible decisions. Society demands maturity, often without asking whether anyone helped them develop it.

That’s why I founded Confirmation Nation Inc.

We’re a faith-based nonprofit preparing to launch our first 14-Day Employment Readiness Program for at-risk young adults ages 18 — 25.

Our curriculum focuses on practical responsibilities: punctuality, communication, work ethic, financial basics, interview preparation, and accountability.

We haven’t launched our first class yet. We don’t have graduates to celebrate or success statistics to publish. What we have is a developed curriculum, a clear purpose, and work still to be done.

I believe faith should produce action, and compassion should lead to preparation, not merely sympathy.

I cannot rewrite my childhood. But perhaps the lessons I learned along the way can become something useful for someone else’s future.

Survival helped me make it through yesterday. Responsibility is helping me build tomorrow.

And through Confirmation Nation, I hope to help others discover that difference.

Learn more about Confirmation Nation:

https://www.confirmationnation.com

Support our first program:

https://giveb.co/s/Vv2DeV

Derick Blakes

Founder & Executive Director, Confirmation Nation Inc.

I Learned How to Survive Before I Learned How to Live was originally published in Confirmation Nation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.