Do you have any experiences from when you were younger that have truly made you who you are today? Anyone who had a part in it as well? I do… When I was younger about 1st grade, my mom, brother, and I all lived in a small apartment. My mom was a young single mom with a part time job because she was kicked out at 17 and wasn’t allowed to finish high school. My mom had to leave my dad not to long after she had my little brother. My mom struggled but she somehow always made sure we had what we needed. She did it all on her own because my dad didn’t feel the need to help her out and I didn’t have a very reliable family. She eventually met a man named “Buddy”. He was in a pretty similar situation as my mom. He had a thing for my mom and they started dating. Buddy and his son lived a street away from us and visited often and we all got pretty close.

One day my mom got a letter saying that our neighborhood was being torn down and we had one month to move out. My mom was shocked and immediately started trying to find a place to go. About 2 weeks after the letter was sent out we got a hard knock on the door. My mom went to answer it and her and some man had a few exchange of words. The words weren’t so nice coming from my mom’s side of the conversation. From what I was later told they came to tell her she needed to leave NOW! Can you believe that? They told her a month and tried to tell her she had to leave early. So you can understand why my mom might have been a bit angry. What was she going to do with no money & two kids? Where was she going to go? My mom slammed the door right in their face and told them to leave. Not too much later the same guys showed up with a cop at the door.

Apparently they ran my mom’s name and said she had a warrant for her arrest from a court date she missed. In my mom’s defense she had two kids and no money … How was she going to make the time or money to get there. When I say we were completely on our own, we really were. She had that court date also because she beat the crap out of her boyfriend for putting his hands on my brother. My mother began arguing with them and the cop arrested her. While all of this is going on Amir is walking up to our house because while his dad was at work, another few guys showed up at his house and told him he needed to leave too. Apparently they were doing this to the entire neighborhood. The cop let my mom call her dad to come and pick me and my younger brother up. The cop and workers left us there alone. They just left a 5 and 4 year old with a 12 year old like it was nothing.  Not too long afterwards Buddy showed up flustered and angry. He sat with us until my grandfather showed up. Then we went to my grandparents and just sat there and waited for news. Apparently my mom was only supposed to be there for one night and something happened with her paper work and she was in there for 7 days. Buddy spent the last of his money on her bail.  When she finally got out she immediately came to get me and my brother. When she got to my grandparents’ house my grandma started arguing with her. She felt my mother wasn’t fit to be a mother was furious with her for getting arrested. My mom left with us and we met buddy at a motel. That night is the night we all really became a family. We lived in a one bed motel room for almost an entire year.

  Buddy has help raised me and has now been with my mom for almost 12 years. He and my mom have always pushed me to do no less than my best. I think that experience & many more that have occurred in my life have made me who I am. I am very independent now because I’ve learned you only have the people who have been there from the jump and that even blood relatives aren’t really family. Family is who’s there for you no matter what. I’ve also decided I want to be a lawyer now because as you can see above there was a lot wrong and injustice in this situation. I want to be able to defend people who are in situation like this and help them get justice. I’ve also never been one to expect much because I’ve never had much. I don’t see a lot of materialistic value in things. And I also take school very seriously because I want to be successful and I want my kids to have everything they need and I never want to have to struggle. I want to graduate and go to college because neither one of my parents, my stepdad or my older brother did yet and I would like to break that chain. I think that you shouldn’t let your struggles define you but I think they definitely have a huge part of me. My stepdad Buddy and my Mom are definitely my biggest heroes. They always pushed me to do better no matter what my situation is.