My Childhood And Teenage Years

Six years ago, a summer afternoon, my dad hugged me and I said “I will be gone for three days, I have a job in Austin, but I promise that I will be back before your birthday. I promise.” Days, weeks, months almost two years passed by and I did not receive any phone call or text message from him. Throughout that time my dad was gone, my mom told me that she was getting the papers ready to divorce my dad. I was noticing that the last three-four years that I was living with both of my parents, their relationship was getting worse. It was not a healthy situation for anyone in the house. What I mean about not being healthy is that my mother and father were damaging one another, emotionally and verbally, which my brothers and I would watch everything. Every day was the same routine, we forgot how it was to have a peaceful home. Around that moment, I honestly never thought divorce was going to be their solution.

He would come home wasted after weeks of not being home; of me wondering where my father had been all those weeks. Staying up late on school nights just wishing for him to come home and tuck me in bed, to tell me he loved me, to ask me how my day was, or just tell me that he was there to stay. As a first grader it is hard to explain to your friends why they can not come to your house to play just knowing that if he is there that he will be drunk yelling at my mom for nothing. It got to the point to where he would come home after a few days and grab a suitcase and leave to go with his new girlfriend for a few days or even weeks. Right before he would leave I would always have hope that he would tell me where he was going or take me with him. I just wanted a father. My mother always told me that he would be back and to have hope; to always trust in her and that she would always be there for me. She was always my rock when I was younger. Until one day she finally told me what a monster the man I called my dad was. He was an abuser, physically and mentally. She told me the truth about the man that I wished was in my life for so long. He never wanted me. I was the youngest out

As a kid I only got to see my dad on the weekends and those were the best days I had, I never understood why I couldn't live with my father full time because my mom never lived a stable life. My mother wasn’t as bad as it seems, she always made sure we had food and somewhere to stay even if it wasn't the greatest, even living with my mom my dad still paid for almost everything I had. When I was about 8 years old I lived in Mccomb and it was my dads weekend and I was so excited to get off of school and go see him, When I got home I was shocked to find everything packed up and my mom told me to get in the car, I was so upset to find out that me, my two brother, and her and her boyfriend were off to Florida. The whole trip to Florida I balled my eyes out and all I remember was that I kept saying that I wanted to live with my dad and that I hated my mom, I wondered how she could just up and leave without telling my

I longed to spend time with my father. One night after school, I went up to my Dad nervously not knowing how he would react and ask him if he would like to play checkers with me, like we normally did. Following this, he screamed at me, told me to go to my room, and told me to leave him alone. I went to my room full of sadness and emotional pain feeling betrayed by

Some reasons why childhood has changed during the past generation are the crimes surged from the 60’s through the early ‘90s, stories of abducted children appeared constantly in the news and this created fear in many parents. The society changed, people seem to have more malicious and that is why parents started to be more cautious.

My father said “Samuel, you awake?”, I thought the best option was to not reply so I can insinuate that I was sound asleep. But then he did it repeatedly with the knocks getting louder and louder like gunshots, the best option was to reply in a tired tone so I would not make him worried and think something tragic happened if I was not replying. He told me “Samuel get ready we’re leaving in about an hour and a half”. He said it in such a joyful tone since we were going to get grandma. I started to feel regret in my decision, I would feel terrible if he knew I was going to delay us going on the plane flight. But then I remembered the whole reason I was doing this in the first place, my fear took over me and that feeling of regret went away in a flash. I told my dad “I'M NOT GOING!” I must have woken up every living member of that house because one of my Spiderman action figures fell off the shelf when I made that proclamation. My dad sounded so angry when I spoke those words, his footsteps were loud walking to his room. All i could hear is my dad shuffling through his things and stuff falling, he ran towards my room yelling “WHERE IS THE KEY!”. I was scared of my father at that point, i had the key in my hand but i was shaking so much that i dropped the key and i could tell that my father knew I had it in my possession. He started yelling at me through the door telling me that this flight was very

comes back full force. My straight A’s start to drop to D’s and E’s, I quit all my after-school activities, stopped talking to everyone, and started to skip school almost everyday. I had always struggled with depression, but it had never been this bad before, I felt like I was drowning and she was pulling me down with her. I struggled a lot with my depression, I had to go to the emergency room twice during the school year for suicide attempts, I just wanted to give up on everything. During this time things kept getting worse and worse, tension kept on building between my mom and me and I still hadn't seen my dad. I remember that night so clearly as if it was yesterday. My mom and I had been arguing all day, We were in my room and kept on arguing

Growing up, I was always considered the “ Angel child” in my family. My parents thought of me as a kid who could do no wrong, and always did the right thing. For most of my childhood and early teenage years, that was correct. It was not until I met my new group of friends when starting Middle school and entering High school that this all changed. I was introduced into the typical group of trouble makers; at least that’s what my parents would come to think. At first, it just seemed like a normal group of friends. We would hang out, play video games and sports together; all the typical activities that teenagers would do together. Things stayed like that up until 9th grade, when more people were added to the group. Their ideas of fun often

I had felt like the alien from the moon landing in this wooded, crowded place. That was five years ago, now I still look around and can not fathom this new planet I landed on so long ago. Being young in an unfamiliar environment caused me to sink into a hardened shell were no one could see me and I could not see them making things even harder on myself. On top of social inconvenience, home life was less than satisfactory. Tensions ran very high between my parents. They no longer loved nor even cared for eachother and this diseases of hatred and strain only forced everyone further and further apart. My only refuge was in my head and later that became an even darker place than my physical world. Over a year ago last February would be the month my father travels to Las Vegas to consequently meet his current girlfriend at a hotel bar. Not for another three months will he move out of our house and get a divorce to my mother, then he will move in with his girlfriend in Alabama within the next eight months. Now this is a common story in our current day and age, but everyone feels differently in every situation. Particularly, I was heartbroken and felt unwanted by someone who

All families experience their share of good times and bad times, I can remember so many wonderful times. Obviously, there were bad times, my parents fought a lot of the time too. I can remember being snuggled in bed, dreaming of lollipops and cotton candy gum drops, only to be woken by the sound of faint arguing through the walls; I never did let them know I heard. There were several occasions I can recall being scoped into my mother’s arms and packed into the car, we were running to my grandma’s house. It always went the same way in these situations, we would arrive at my grandma’s, my father would come and speak to my mother, and then we would go home again. I never really understood it; It was my first lesson in adulthood,doing things

In that time, I never really knew what happened. I would always question my mom but she told that he had business to take care of. But one night, I saw my mom crying and I went to comfort her only to see she was holding a picture of my dad. Then, I connected all the pieces together and finally figured it out. I never got to spend time with him since he was always on business trips, and now I never will. After my dad died, my mom changed. She was more controlling over me than ever and hovering me most of the time. I knew why though, she didn’t want to lose me the way she did with dad. That’s why I don’t complain that much because I know inside she still misses him and I do

Growing up, the only constant was change. My formative years were spent in very diverse environments that were polar opposites of each other, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Orange County, CA to Dallas, TX. Having experienced the various beliefs and ideologies held in these vastly different settings, I have developed a more nuanced understanding of the world around me.

To this day, I can still remember standing at the end of my driveway watching my mother arrive home from the bus stop. This day was different; she was not coming home empty handed. In fact, she had stopped at a yard sale on the way home and bought a prize for me, a doll named Suzy. This memory, from the age of two, embraces the story of my mother and my entire childhood. In Indianapolis, Indiana in September 1980, I was born to a single mother. Throughout her life, she worked for the phone company in downtown Indianapolis. Even though she raised us through hardships and despair, she always took the time to love my brother and me outwardly. Until second grade, I have no recollection of my father visiting more than three occasions. At last, in fourth grade we began to spend weekends at his house and with his family. Sadly, when I was eleven we learned that my father had cancer. One week before Christmas, after a school music program, I read his obituary in the paper and told my mother he had passed away. From that moment, our family forever changed, specifically my relationship with my mother.

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.

As a child, I remember growing up in an area of Atlanta, Georgia called Mechanicsville. This area was very diverse with people from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Often, my mother would share valuable life lessons with my siblings and me. One, in particular, I remember even to this day is, “Life is only as challenging or motivating as you make it”. Originally, I did not quite understand the purpose of this aphorism; but as I got older, the meaning became quite clear. Although life for me has been both wholesome and unhealthy, in hindsight, it seemed better than my childhood friends. If you knew the real story, you would see that my life is not as perfect as it appears. Just to provide you with a little insight into my world, I had a