I wanted to share my story as to what makes me who I am today! Many question how positive I am and don’t believe that someone could be so happy, but yet it is possible to be!
My parents divorced when I was 8 months old and both found new partners. I lived with my mother from the time I was 8 months until I was 9 in the beautiful sunshine state we know as Florida! My mother remarried a man who was a complete jerk! My mother has 8 children, but only raised me and two other siblings, which belong to my step-dad. My mother was addicted to crack and step-dad was abusive. At the age of 8, I was molested by my step-father and constantly abused. My mother was so caught up on her drugs that she wasn’t concerned much w/the abuse or me being molested. A year after I was molested, my mother decided to disappear on what you would call a crack run and sold me to a guy at a crack house. My other two siblings were placed in foster care, until an Aunt took them in. My mother and step-dad were considered not fit for parenting at this point. It was after this incident that I decided to reach out to my real Father who lived in Indiana, which saved me from being placed in Foster Care.
I relocated to Indiana at the age of 9 to live w/my real Father who had also remarried and had another daughter w/my step-mom. My Father and step-mom never got along, there was always so much fighting and arguing. My father worked so much and stayed away due to the fighting. My step-mom turned out to also be a drug addict, but addicted to cocaine and marijuana. She always favored her daughter and considered me the evil child in which case I wasn’t. I was also abused by her because she was always under the influence of some form or drug and didn’t know what she was doing. My sister (her daughter) was always put on a pedestal and could never do anything wrong. My sister even smoked marijuana at such a young age w/her mother. It was at this point that I could only care for myself and also look after the house and take care of my sister because her mother wasn’t capable of it. I would grocery shop, clean house, cook, and make sure we made it to school every day. This continued on for the next 9yrs until I graduated high school. Believe it or not, I made straight A’s through school. School was my outlet!! From the age of 16 to 18, I got a job to help save for a big move to be on my own. At the age of 18, I left my Father w/a note of me packing up and leaving. This was my goodbye as I left on a day everyone was out of the house.
At the age of 18, I took all my hard earned money and moved back to the state of Florida to attend a community college. I found an affordable apartment in a nice area and set up. My life has been on the up ever since I moved away from all the pain and heartache. I did my best to try and save my siblings from following the same path, but they just weren’t as strong as me. They all had kids at such an early age and turned to drugs. Some I have kept touch with and others I have lost touch.
Am I perfect no, but I do know that there is always something better in life to look forward to and I will continue to be positive. I just want to make those aware that life isn’t easy and I understand as I’ve seen the worst of the worse. It’s ok to reach out and speak about it! It is possible to push through and come out on top!!
