My Road to Success

Since I was a little girl, I've always dreamed of being successful. On numerous occasions, certain situations stood in the way of this dream. I've come extremely far from various places; after everything that's happened, it's hard to grasp how successful my high school career has been thus far. My favorite quote is "everything happens for a reason". I used to think it was just bad luck every time something would negatively impact my life. But, after years of one thing happening after the next, I decided it wasn't coincidental, and it wasn't just bad luck. Things do happen for a reason and when one door closes, another one opens.

Growing up in poverty-ridden cities at age 6 with a brother at age 3 and divorced parents addicted to prostitution and cocaine, my childhood was less than perfect. Constantly moving from home to home, fluctuating between schools and making new friends became a routine for me. I absolutely adored my parents (too young to realize what they were involved in), and my older sister of 13 years, Tiffany. We were always two-peas-in-a-pod! She was out of the house by the time she was 15, living on her own. The year she graduated from high school is the year our lives would change forever. In 2000, my family was evicted from yet another place we began to call home. My mother realized she was, by no means, qualified to care for me and my brother during that time. Without hesitation, my sister moved us into the apartment she was sharing with her boyfriend at the time, James. Although I wasn't fond of him at first, once I saw how happy he made my sister--I was sold.

After the move with Tiffany, my brother and I saw our mother less and less. At that point, our father became non-existent in my mind. We were happy living with our sister and her boyfriend; they cared for us as if we were their own. In 2002, our mother went missing. She was no longer reachable by phone or address, and no one had seen or heard from her in weeks. To this day, her whereabouts are still unknown. There are several theories of what might've happened to her, none of which I wanted to believe as an eight year old girl confused at the fact that she may never see her mother again. Detectives say it's possible her extremely violent/abusive boyfriend had something to do with her disappearance. They also say she could've been a victim in an accident and suffered severe amnesia and can't remember her name, let alone that she has children. I may never find out the truth, but I stay hopeful. I know that this significant occurrence in my life is the reason my brother and I still live with my sister and her HUSBAND James, the reason we have people who love and support us every single day, the reason I live a beautiful life.

At age 17, my sister and James became parents. They never got the chance to go to college like they had planned, and that's one of the most significant reasons