At just five years old is when my life started getting complicated. When you look at a five year old, the thought of them going through something so heartbreaking will never ever cross your mind. I myself have struggled with depression since the age of 5. Life for me has never been easy. At the age of 5 i saw my mom get kidnapped, gun pointed towards her head, being threatened saying that if we didn’t obtain the money they wanted they would kill my mother and make soup with her. My grandmother and I, day and night, tried to get a hold of the money. Knocking door to door asking for help. Very traumatizing but it honestly didn’t stop there and when we did get at least some of the money we decided that as soon as my mom was released we would leave this place and so we did. Not only that but because we received more threats saying that if we didn’t leave town they would take both of us this time.
We went to live with my paternal family which I had never met since my father had been locked up a couple months before I was born.I never really enjoyed living there. My dad’s mother never liked me, called me names, treated me unfairly. For some reason I wasn’t her granddaughter because I looked nothing like her son. He was much lighter in skin tone than I was. My father is still in jail at this moment in time. It was a very quiet and cloudy night where my mom and I were watching Coraline Jones. When she received a phone call from the US. letting her know that her oldest son was fighting for his life in a hospital bed due to a car accident. Me and my mom quickly packed and got on a bus to go to a relative’s house where I would be staying.
Meanwhile my mother tried getting to the other side and since i’m a U.S citizen I would later go in an airplane to be with her. My time there wasn’t easy, i was bullied being called an orphan for not having my father or mother with me. My family was poor so I never had lunch money, but on good days I was able to bring food from home.When I was finally able to come to the U.S again I was filled with joy but I missed my siblings and my mom. I went on an airplane all by myself at the age of 6; with a flight attendant of course but no family members. Starting first grade was horrible. My teacher would often be upset at the fact that I couldn’t write nor speak any type of English. I was very behind. Adapting was extremely hard. I would always cry not wanting to go back to school because I would always get yelled at by my teacher. Father’s day had to be one of the worst days in the year. Growing up without a father was very hard because whenever we had father daughter/son ceremonies I would always feel left out. My second oldest brother would attend these in place of my father and I will always be thankful .
My very first friend actually attends Eastside although we grew apart. I’m thankful because she was the only person who was patient enough to teach me english. At home nothing was easy. My brother, who had the car accident and was in a coma for almost a year, damaged 9 parts of his brain.Because of this he became very aggressive and would constantly throw objects at me and many other things happened. CPS was involved, making my mom have to choose between my brother and me. For them not to take me away my mom sent me to live with my older cousins for a while meanwhile she sort everything out. Fast Forward 10 years my father just came out of jail and is trying to take control of my life. Now that I’m older I realized that everything I went through just made me stronger. And it made me mature in a much faster way.
Written by a high school student in the San Francisco Bay Area.