Who I Am

  Some moments/incidents that I treasure would probably be from growing up.  I had to grow up without a dad.  He was in my two older brother's lives but decided to leave a couple months before I was born. 
  From there my mom started to raise all three of us on her own, until she found a boyfriend.  She was with this guy for awhile and he used to beat me when my mom was at work.  Then, every night me and my brothers would go to sleep to the sound of him beating our mom in the other room.  I was only four. 
  Finally, I convinced my mom to leave and one night we left without any of our stuff to go live with my aunt.  We lived with her in a mobile trailer.  It was me, my two brothers, my mom,, my two aunts, and my uncle.  Later we got our own place but would struggle with rent like every other month. 
  After my dad got out of jail, he decided he wanted to be in our lives and act like a "dad".  My mom wasn't up for that but me and my brothers wanted to be with him, especially me because he was never in my life and I was only eight, so really I just wanted to know what it's like to have a dad, you know?  So my mom agreed to let us go every summer to visit and stay with him for the summer.  It didn't turn out how I thought it would. 
  My dad's girlfriend hated us and would blame every little fight they had on us, and my dad would always tell me that I wasn't his son but my two brothers were.  I remember he'd always say I'm probably A**'s kid.  That's the boyfriend my mom had that used to beat me and her.  He'd say that in front of everyone and everyone would laugh, so I'd just laugh with them like it was funny. 
  And when my dad would try to be a "dad", it would actually be him just teaching us about how to hustle drugs, make money, get with girls and pimp them because back then he was a pimp.  He never tried to teach us how to be a man.  Well, I guess in his eyes he was, but his way of being a man was degrading to women, which I was very much against since my mom was the only one raising us.  So I have a lot of respect for women. 
  After nothing but struggles in my life and just putting up with my dad's b**s** I finally realized he isn't s**.  I stopped going to visit him and started helping my mom with rent around the age of 13.  I was too young for a job so I had to do illegal stuff selling drugs and robbing people, so in a way what my dad taught me I could actually put to use.  My mom would never take the money so I had to sneak the money in her purse. 
  After a couple years, my uncle passed away in a car crash.  My dad was the one driving and he ended up in the hospital in critical condition.  My brothers and I went to see him.  After the incident he seemed to be changing so I decided to let him try to be a part of my life again.  It turned out he was back on drugs though, and me and him ended up getting into a huge fight and got really close to physically fighting.  At that point I just completely decided he isn't part of my life, never really was anyways. 
  These are the many moments that I treasure about my life because even though they are not happy moments, these things have made me into who I am today as a person.

E.R.

A Moment I Treasure Is...

The moment I treasure in life is when I successfully completed treatment.

I chose this moment because I was in treatment for 48 days.  We had to live in close quarters with all boys and no cigs, shitty food, and no time to just go outside and chill, either with myself or others.

We were always being watched and documented so we could only get away with a handful of things.

I almost got kicked out multiple times because of my behavior and what not, but in the end I actually successfully completed treatment.  The reason I chose this moment is because :

1. I learned a bunch of shizz about being clean and all the things drugs do to you.

2. I had to buck up and do the things I was supposed to do which honestly I'd never really done.  I usually just don't give a f***.

3. From being away from my mom and sister so long, when I got to see them it was a pretty dank moment, I'd have to say.

And for that I treasure the moment not only because of the good parts, but also because of all the shitty ones too, and how I learned that if I really really want something, then I'll figure out how to do the things I can to get out of that situation.

After all that, I ended up putting all the skills and stuff to work and stayed clean for more than 200 days, which is probably a danker moment than when I got out of treatment because that's a fat ass minute of being clean.

G.S.