Kimberly Wilborn
5 years in Illinois Foster Care System
19 years old
She/her/hers
Kimberly is currently a student at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. One thing that motivates her passion for being an advocate in her community is her desire to see others be changed. Kimberly's hope is for those in her community to be better and do better holistically, and to have the resources to do so. When her life gets really tough, two things that help her cope are her faith and exercise. She can always count on her faith to give her hope, sustainability, and focus. Exercising helps her to physically release stress from her body and helps her find joy in the simpler and easier things in life.
“We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear the most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. ‘What if ….’ ‘If only ….’ ‘I wonder what would have ….’ you will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.” ~ Trevor Noah, Born A Crime
One piece of advice that Kimberly would offer someone in Foster Care is to believe that good things will come to you and that you deserve to be loved. Even if you feel like your childhood may have not been the best, or may have not been everything you would have wanted it to be. Still choose to believe that eventually, your life will be everything that is SUPPOSED to be and that you will be where you are supposed to be in your near future.
