So, it's safe to say life never really gave me an easy go at it, things never went the way they were supposed to or something like that.. 

My mom is a chronic drug user, she also has bipolar disorder. Happiness was a rarity, opportunity even rarer. When I was 7 years old (just 1 month after my disabled brother was born) my mother lit our family home on fire, her goal? Insurance money, she intended to get herself and my eldest sister out, and leave me and my brother in the home. Thankfully, I woke up just as the fire entered the room we were sleeping in, and I was able to get both of us out through the bedroom window. She was able to get the whole thing swept under the rug, even with witness testimony because, a town of corrupt police officers didn't need to be outed in court. 

She maintained custody of us for another 5 years by moving constantly, whenever we would get settled and she would suspect social services may have been called, she'd pack our things and move us to another state. This ultimately led to us living in New Mexico. When moving to NM she took my brother and myself, leaving my sister behind. This meant I was the new mom, I stayed home from school to raise my brother, and ensure my mother was alive, I went grocery shopping with the food stamps, I got my brother up and on the bus each morning, and I made 3 meals a day to fill his stomach, all at 11 years old. Taking this time off of school for nearly 2 full years led to a lot if missed opportunities, a lot of catching up that just couldn't be done. 

Right after my 12th birthday I opted to move into m grandparents home for 2 years, I went to school, but depression was never easy. The May after I left my mother pled guilty to intentionally overdosing my (then) 6 year old brother. She admitted that she had given him the pills that left him legally dead for 30 minutes. Stress from this situation, from trying to save everyone took a toll on my academics, and I fell behind once more, forever playing the catch up game. 

In the Spring of my junior year I was set to fail high school, a teenage drop out, just like everybody before me. My mother was sent away to prison, leaving my brother homeless, my brother was going to be taken into the foster care system, and as his protective big sister, I couldn't have that. I packed my things, and i bought a bus ticket, I was in New Mexico with him by the next evening. 

I enrolled into school once more, this time it was an alternative one, I again was the caretaker of a child I did not birth, but love like he's my own. Each morning we'd wake up for school together, each morning he was inspired by my persistence to do good, and I was inspired by his determination to overcome what my mother had done to him. I pushed and pushed to graduate on time, and that I did, i was high honor roll my entire time at the alternative school. But I hadn't realized then that it was too late, colleges didn't want me, scholarships saw me as a lost cause. So... I settled... working a minimum wage job instead of working towards my dream. I'm 21 now, a mother to my own incredible daughter, but every single day I am suffering the repercussions of my mothers actions, be it credit cards I never took out, loans I never asked for, or medical bills from states I never lived in, my mother has worked hard and against me every step of the way. 

I just need a leg up in the world, I need to be adopted by Bill and Melinda Gates, and I think maybe then, someone will be proud....