My Story
When I was five years old, my parents got a divorce. At the time I had no idea what that meant all I knew was my father was leaving the house and never returning. As the years went by my mother became a heavy alcoholic. I remember waking up in my mother’s bed and she would be so intoxicated she would pass out on the floor half naked because she wet herself. As I became a young man my Mother found a new husband who also happens to be an alcoholic. Years went by and they had children. Now having new siblings wasn’t the problem, it was having to stay up and take care of two crying boys because they miss their mother while she’s off somewhere getting intoxicated with their father. As days went by my grades started to drop, my time for resting and sleeping started to shorten. My freedom as a kid myself was taken from me. I no longer was a teenager but a man raising two younger males trying to teach them how to be respectful young men. I felt trapped and lost without hope until I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I had finally grown the courage to speak to my eldest brother who had gone through the same experience I had been going through. He told me his story and how he overcame his challenge but he had told me he wanted me to overcome it better than he did by not make the same mistakes he did. He told me “a closed mouth doesn’t get fed” my brother had suddenly became a the light in my dark world. He told me to tell our mother how I felt and if i should ever need anything to go to him and he will do anything means necessary to give me the help I need. Since then my brother and I have become very close not only my eldest brothers but all my older brothers after so many years have become bonded not only by blood but by love, sympathy, and compassion.
As a young boy I wasn’t at the reading level most kids were. They would always talk about the books we would read and how amazing the book is but I couldn’t agree because I didn’t understand the book and its words. As years went by I slowly became a better reader but still not at the level everyone else was. When I got to middle school it was then the school realized I wasn’t a good reader so they put me in English Language Development (ELD). It was there I became a better reader. I began to understand books and what they meant. All the way up until sophomore year I was in ELD until finally I made it out. I had finally made my way in a regular english class. It was ELD and the teachers that made me a better reader. Now don’t get me wrong I still have a lot to learn and more words to comprehend but I know over time I will become a better reader than I am now. It was the class and the teachers that pushed me to read and taught me to understand what I was reading, to picture it in my mind as if I was there. I can tell you for a fact if I could go back and pay more attention and listen to my teachers when they told me how important reading was I could have saved myself the tears and headaches of trying to read and getting upset with myself because I could not read. But even through the pain and tears i’m glad I went through this journey. It opened my eyes, it made me see the value of a lot of things. When you’re a middle school boy and you can’t read it’s very hard to go through life when almost everywhere you see has words but i’m glad I was able to experience this because not only did it make me a better reader but it made me who I am today without it I don’t know who I’d be.