Why I don't Cry

After being dropped off from dance late at night, I was expecting to walk into a silent house where everyone was asleep. Instead, I walked into my living room to find the rest of my family sitting on the couch with the television off, which was strange for my family. It was clear they were waiting for me to get home, so I sat down too. My mom and dad exchanged a look and a sigh then turned back towards my brother and me. They babbled absently for a few minutes, then, my mom quickly spit out the words, as if ripping off a Band-Aid, "We are moving back to Arizona." There was a brief moment of stunned silence before I burst into tears. I could not imagine why my parents would decide to separate me from my best friends six months before we were supposed to

It was the winter of 2009, my siblings and I went to go play in the snow. We went to the backyard, and in order to go to the backyard we had to jump the fence. We were having a great time; we made a snow fort, had a snowball fight, but when we were playing tag my brother tripped and twisted his ankle. We were going to take him back inside so we were about to leave but, he couldn’t climb over the fence and it was buried in the snow so we couldn’t move it. My friend Caleb, and his sister heard and we tried to move the fence together. Eventually they gave up, and went back home because their mom was calling them. Which made me kind of angry, but I realized that ninety five percent of friends don’t have that bond that family does. We stayed with

My name’s Rebecca Lynn Peck, although I’ve always gone by Becca. On July 17, I turned 18. Stationed there, my mom had me in Enterprise, AL. Beginning in the army and transitioning to the national guard, our military family moved from Alabama to California to Oklahoma all before I turned four years old as a requirement for staying with my dad. Switching not only cities, but also states, I moved from Broken Arrow, OK, which is about 10 minutes southeast of Tulsa, OK. In the autumn of 2012, my parents got a divorce. Before I moved away, I lived with my mom and brother, Josh. My dad and a woman named Kris got married not long after the divorce was final. A man named Scott has taken interest in my mom. His son, Anthony, studies here as well. Both

Growing up I had a wonderful childhood. Parents who loved each other and us six more than anything. My dad was a hard worker and provided for his family everyday of the week. My was a house wife and a mother, she loved being just that. As we grew older my dad started drinking more and got to where he was not coming home. My mom would get phone calls from jail where he had gotten DWI and he needed her to come get him. When I was 13 years old my dad was sentenced to prison for 15 years. At 13 years old that has a big impact on a child. Started looking for that fatherly figure and from there on I had an interest in older men. At 15 years old I met this guy, David who was 19 years old, and thought I was deeply in love with him. At 18 years old my mom kicked me out of the house and where else did I have to go but to my boyfriends house, David’s house, and at 20 years old I married him. We had a great relationship and marriage in the beginning, but as the years passed our marriage got rocky. He would not

They were not pleased with Snow though. They wanted to skin him and use him as a throw rug for the living room. I refused and refused until they allowed me to keep him. Now, today is my birthday and i am turning 15. I think today will be a good day. I want to go for a walk but I don't think that I can with my uncle and aunt. Ever since I have been here my food tasted different and different ever time. They are most likely poisoning me little by little. I keep thinking what happened on that island and my heart keeps getting even more clouded. People at my school keep asking me what it was like living on an island and I continue to tell them go see for yourself. I am getting tired of telling them the same thing every time. I hope today at school will be different. On this special day I will be even more distant. My aunt is calling me for breakfast but I don't eat allot of the food anymore. I eat only a few bites and I then leave. I got up and went to the door and I was stopped by the maid and she fixed my out fit, and then she said "you're growing up more

Hey I'm Henry Smith my parents died 6 years ago when I was 10. Willie Jones took me in when I was 13. Willie has 2 boys Andrew and Jack. They both get along very well, they see me as an older brother. It's been a crazy 3 years but then 5 weeks ago My life changed. Willie told me that we would be going on the Oregon trail he said he wanted me to start a new life... A life on my own. I was pretty scared because I didn't want to leave my best friend Thomas he's another orphan and sometimes he likes to sleep at Willies. Willie said that we'd be leaving in 7 weeks. We have been preparing very generously these past 4-5 weeks. I didn't know how much stuff Willie had until I saw everything. He had things from First Aid to a Spare Yoke for our oxen. Willie wanted to have me prep the

I’ve grown up in a divided family, spending weekends and holidays at which ever parents’ house it was time to visit. My parents are not together so it makes things kind of weird when they have a different significant other. About four years ago I used to live with my mom after my dad got sent away to prison. In the beginning everything was fine. I went to school and had friends like every sixteen year old should. After a while my mom met a guy and his name was Robert. I never liked it when my parents were dating a different person, but I felt like I at least wanted them to find happiness even if it wasn’t with each other. So when my mom asked for my blessing, I approved. At first I liked him, he was nice and helped my mom out with money and things around the house. He got along with my brother and I, would take my mom on nice dates, and buy her flowers. Then he started to change

How did my life become so complicated? I miss my brothers and Baby Suggs and I miss when life was normal. I miss dad. I wish I knew him. Momma says he’s coming but I obviously know better than that. He hasn’t ever been in my life, what makes me think he’d just show up and want to be in my life now? I’m so lonely. I thought things would get better when Beloved came. I thought she’d cure my loneliness. But no. Everything changed when she came. She’s rude and crude and is trying to steal my mom. Beloved is my sister, but she’s definitely not acting like it. She’s acting like momma. She’s been dressing like momma, talking like momma, and acting like momma. It’s freaking me out. I can’t get away from it. I can barely tell them apart

Two years ago in fifth grade was a great year until one something happened, something that was not going to make the year better, but make the year worse. I was sitting in my room watching TV when mom yells from the living room, “Kandace! Can you come here please?”. I pause the show and walk out of the room and sit on the couch she looks at her phone and then at me, “ Katelynn and Andrea are moving to Arizona.” she says in a sad voice, My heart stopped. In my head, I just kept thinking It’s a joke, she is just kidding, why would they move so far away? but she wasn’t they were really moving to Arizona, and I had no idea why.

Prior to this situation, I was moving to Charlotte, NC, the following day that this situation happened. But that’s when I got a phone call when I was in Charlotte that my cousin got shot I didn’t think it was true real. That phone call was the day that I lost myself and who I was as a person. I can remember it like it was yesterday when I got a phone call from Andrew’s fiancé and baby mama to be. When she called me, I knew that something was wrong as soon as she got on the phone. I thought the problem was with her because before I left New York Andrew asked her to marry him and we found out that she was pregnant. When she told me that she was healthy and the baby was okay, I didn’t think that she would say what she said to me. She told me that my cousin Andrew had been shot numerous times in his back and chest. I yelled, begging her to not be lying to me. She started crying, telling me that she doesn’t know how she is going to be without him, that she was going to kill herself and the baby just so that she can be with him. When this happened it really hurt me and a lot of our family. Who would ever think that Andrew’s best bud would be the worst enemy? I just knew that if I didn’t have a big mouth and I didn’t tell anyone he would still be here. All I thought about was the fact that it was my fault. I just knew that he would have been at my graduation, or would have

In seventh grade I had my first real boyfriend. His name was Damonte Davis. He was a football player and he also played basketball. He was really fun for me to be around but he was a toxic person in my life. I got my first kiss ever from him. I thought he was the cutest guy in the world and I thought I was going to marry him. Well that’s what all kids the when they THINK they’re in love. My mom couldn’t stand him. She knew things that I clearly didn’t understand. She knew that he wasn’t could for me. She knew that he wouldn’t help me grow into the person that I needed to be. To me Damonte was the only support I had though. I felt like he was the only guy that supported me and had my back. This period of my life my dad wasn’t

After all the back and forth and going to court, on January 6, 2012… my aunt finally got custody of me and I moved here, to Delaware with my aunt, her spouse and my cousins. I was in 8th grade now and went to George Read Middle School. I didn’t know anyone but my cousin and I missed all my old friends. But, I started to open up and get a little bit more comfortable and got to know people and the people my cousin hangs around. I had been through many ups and downs with fake people and having people coming in and out of my life. I started to get involved in sports, especially in track, I had a passion for it once I found out I am really good at it. I then got to high school; I first went to William Penn High School and built a bond with this amazing track team who I love dearly. I switched high schools my 11th grade year and now I am here at A.I DuPont High

My story begins in the sunny bright land of Crestview, Florida in 2015. My father announced that he was going to be moving in with his fiance in Indiana and my brother and I would be living with our mom for the remainder of the school year. My brother and I had the choice to stay or go to be closer to the rest of our family who lives in Indiana as well. My brother was pleading with everything to go to Indiana so we could be closer and see our family more often. Myself, I wanted to stay because I had friends and one thing holding me there, my girlfriend. She was the only reason I wanted to stay in Florida, we were together for a year and a half and I would rather stay with her than leave to be with my family. Eventually as the school year was wrapping up, she became nervous that I would wind up leaving her and going to Indiana so she did what any non-logical person would do. She started dating another guy. Most people would be heartbroken or even devastated over this, but me? No, I was perfectly fine. I knew this was God’s plan to get me to a better life, allow me to tell you more of my

Austin and I became fast friends and eventually became a couple. I thought that “love” was what I needed. Maybe if I love him, I will learn to love myself, and if I loved myself maybe I could convince my guardians to love me as well. Despite my efforts, things at home were getting harder. My guardians were becoming more and more angry because I was changing. I became passionate about music and certain types of shows that they didn't approve of, and they found more reasons to punish me for it. I was always grounded, always being yelled at. We no longer had even the slightest amount of conversations and they would often tell me about how they were disappointed in me for a number of different reasons. They especially disliked Austin, or at least the way he was influencing me. Yet he stood by me and held my hand when I felt like my world was caving in. He refused to let me forget about my quest to find myself, and the more we stayed together, the more I started learning to love myself. Throughout Junior year I realized that the only thing holding me back from finding the acceptance I had been searching for, was the family I lived with. The ones who were supposed to love me no matter who I was. My Grandma saw through the secrets and knew how my guardians felt about me, and one day I finally broke down. “They say they love me,” I cried, “but they only love me because I’m their

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.