Isn’t it funny how one decision you didn’t even make can change your whole entire life? Well, for me my life was ripped completely from under my baby feet; and molded into the complete opposite of the stereotypical mediocrities of society.

From day one, society and psychologist deemed me as deviant disgrace to society. I was just another statistic to the books, a hypothetical cause for crime and issues in this nation. All because of two young people’s decision, my future was “predestined to failure.” However, through the daily walk of life I am just one more person working against the statistics and proving society wrong.

Fighting and screaming was as familiar as music or birds chirping back then. I can’t honestly remember a happy moment, but isn’t that normal? My parents’ separated when I was nearly a year old. However, my mom weaved her way in and out of the house for a long time. It was just my daddy, my sister Jenny, my brother Ryan and me. Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing, but I managed, pretending that they were still together.

Going to school was the hardest. Most everyone saw me as normal, but my thoughts and anger exiled me. There was no constant in my life… it was all because my mom was gone. One day I craved the class’s attention, and on others I just wanted to be left alone. It really hurt not having a mommy to talk about. I would always make up stories about why she wasn’t around. They were weird and really absurd, too. For instance, once I said my mom couldn’t go on a field trip because she was in Louisiana getting ready for the Super Bowl. What is the Super Bowl anyways? Some days my mom was extremely rich and busy and others she was at home making dinner. No matter how real the thoughts and ideas were to others, it was all jokes to me. I think the most damaging part of my life was when my mom started wanting to be a mother to us kids, I mean, she had no experience! This was a woman who had always done what she wanted. How in the world would she give up anything for the sake of anyone rather than herself? She couldn’t.

I remember talking to her on the phone and planning out weekends to go camping. It was the most exciting thing ever! We had it planned weeks in advance, and on the day of picking me up she called to tell me she couldn’t take us. When we got off the phone I didn’t cry or even complain… In the room nearby I heard my dad telling my older brother and sister that she ditched us to go out with her boyfriend. This boyfriend soon turned out to be her husband. He was an a**. Often she would cancel weekend plans. This went on till I was about eight or nine. The only person I could really rely on was me!

It’s funny to me how much I cared about this lady. All I wanted was to be with her. However, my dad had a lot of bad feelings for her. It seemed like every night I was defending her at dinner. It was three vs. one.
You’d probably be surprised to find out I ran away the summer of fourth grade; she picked me up in her gold 2000 Ford F150 in the middle of the night because I so badly wanted to know her. You might even be surprised that I spent three years in court testifying face to face against my parents for a custody battle. I was forced to choose. I was forced to hurt the ones I loved! (This was the most damaging) You might even be surprised I spent the next five years living with this woman 45 miles north in small towns called Foristell, but these are all stories for later.

As for the five years, they were the most growing experience of my life. You see… I was forced to grow up young and I’m okay with this because I know it was meant to be. I know this because I spent these last years of my life raising my parents. I taught them everything they were supposed to teach me. I loved them no matter the circumstances, and now we are a family! I am not a product of my parents or their divorce, but of my own success.