One can uncover a lot of things about Giralddy Chavez. For starters, she goes by “Geegee”. She has an obsession with owls. She’s a seventeen-year-old senior at Blue Valley Southwest — the ninth high school she’s attended. She’s transferred to six different foster homes. She holds down two jobs. On top of having to handle all of this, she has a 15 month-old baby.

Geegee found out she was pregnant when she was a sophomore in high school. Becoming a mom at age 15 and 16 is the biggest change she’s ever experienced.

But the change didn’t stop there.

“My mom didn’t want to help me,” Geegee said. “If I was old enough to have sex and not use protection, I was old enough to take care of my own business.”

As in control of her life as she seems to be to anyone who knows her, it wasn’t that way from the beginning. She was just as blown away by all the responsibility and hecticness motherhood brought with it as anyone would be.

“Not knowing what it was to be a mom … it was … crazy.”

In the midst of all this, she had to go to an alternative high school. She describes it as the home of the “outcasts”. Not only the girls who had gotten pregnant, but drug addicts and “rebel kids” were also in attendance.

“It was okay to do drugs in that school,” Geegee said. “People, teachers didn’t reinforce it.”

Geegee herself has a reason not to do these things.

“If I mess up, it can determine whether I can keep my daughter or not.” Geegee said.

This makes it hard to meet up with her old friends. They are now separated by so much more than the “Valley girl accent” Geegee confesses she’s developing. The consequences she would face if caught getting involved in their activities heavily the fun she would have reconnecting with them.

“I think what helps me deal with things is knowing that all my hard work will pay off in the end, for my daughter and for me.” Geegee said. “Give my daughter a better life than what I had.”

And she has a lot of things to deal with. A typical day begins with school, but doesn’t end at 3 p.m.. Right after school she goes to work, gets home at 10 p.m. after her shift ends, and then has to start her schoolwork and chores. That doesn’t included the weekly tasks she has to do for the court to maintain custody of Emmie, the college class she is taking, the occasional therapy sessions, weekly youth group, and parenting class she’s taking at Olathe Bible Church. After all of this, she can only go to bed when Emmie is ready to do the same.

“Sometimes I come to school in my pajamas because I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before,” Geegee said. “A teacher will be like ‘did you do your homework?’ and I’m like … um … I’m finishing it right now?”

Although she says that not all of her teachers understand what she’s going through, her Southwest peers are different. She was shocked at the inclusive atmosphere and all-around geniality she discovered here. After experiencing so many schools with gang violence and social cliques, she found relief here.

But she has found friends in other places as well. When she was 13, her first foster mom introduced Geegee to Dan, the youth pastor at the mom’s church. At the time, Geegee didn’t think anything of it, but after almost five years, he’s still always been there to support her through all the “hard times” she’s gone through, whether it be transitioning to a new foster home or transferring schools. He, in addition to certain special people she meets at each new location, gives her a sense of consistency no matter the problems she faces.

“Everywhere I go, I always … there always seems to be that one friend who will do about anything for me.”

She found friends at the church she currently attends as well. Her current foster family, the Vinings, brought her to Olathe Bible Church with them. They have a youth program both Wednesday nights and after first service every Sunday.

“I get to spend time with them, you know, and praise God at the same time,” she said.

She also works at the daycare there every Sunday night, in addition to her job at McDonald’s during the week. The latter is much more strenuous. Since she can’t work during the school day, Geegee has to take the later shifts. She says they can last as long as 11 hours.

Despite it all, she remains optimistic about her future.

“My sleepless nights, I know, like, at the end of the day whenever I graduate, I’ll have my high school diploma. I’ll be able to go further on.”