Writing #1

Where to begin? I guess I’ll start when I was about seven. My family was living in Madison County and we were living pretty well at the time. I was use to getting what ever I asked for. Then things started changing slowly. It was so unexpected. Everyone I knew had no idea what was going on. Not even my brother or sister knew.

At the time I didn’t know my dad was selling drugs out of our house. Everything was good. We had money and a good life. I didn’t know then but my parents were starting to experiment with “hard” drugs. That’s where everything started to get a little complicating. The bills and stuff started becoming overdue and the rent wasn’t getting paid. I didn’t understand because I was use to everything coming so easy. Then we got kicked out of our house.

We moved into another house here in Athens, my dad then got a job at the RC cola plant delivering soda to stores. My mom was waitressing at al local restaurant and money was still tight. I still didn’t understand. My brother, sister, and I went from having it all to having little to nothing. Christmas came around and there wasn’t any thing under the Christmas tree that year. We didn’t even have the money to buy a tree. It was a very hard and sad time. Then one day my mom and dad both lost their jobs. Our famialy then packed up all we could in trash bags and moved to North Carolina.

We stayed with my grandma for about a year. I loved living with grandma. She was so sweet and nice to us all. My mom then got a job working at a restaurant and my dad found a very good job at a fabric factory. They saved up some money and we got our own place, which was in a trailer park. It was good there, and everyone seemed happy. Things were going great, for the time being.

We lived at the trailer park for about two years. The time spent there was pretty good. We were “up on our feet” again. We weren’t poor any more but we weren’t wealthy either. We were just perfect, so it seemed. Then I remember things started to go down hill, again. This time it hit the family hard.

I couldn’t understand, my parents were still working and making the same amount of money. It just seemed like the money never made it home. Like I said earlier, the bills started getting behind and rent was over due. We were finally kicked out, for the second time.

We lived with my grandma again for about six months. My parents got jobs but I can’t really remember what their jobs were at this time. Things still weren’t picking up. My parents then borrowed money form my aunt and got another trailer. Things there were bad. I remember us not having electricity for the first couple months of us moving in. We would run a drop cord from one of our neighbor’s houses to ours so we could have a little light. We finally got the power turned on but things were still pretty bad.

We stayed there for about a year also. I remember going all week with out food except the food I would get at school. We would only get food once a week and that was when my dad got paid on Fridays. Then as I said before we were kicked out again and moved back to Georgia.

This is when I think I realized what was going on. I don’t know how I figured it out but some how I did. We started living with my other grand ma in Athens. My dad started driving 18wheeler and was making a lot of money. My mom was working at yet another restaurant. We moved into a trailer park in Athens on the east side.

That’s when I started noticing all the cars coming to the house all times of the day and night. I knew then they were drug dealers. I started taking down every dealers tag number when they would come up. I had about twenty tag numbers. Then I thought about it. If I was to turn those tag numbers in my family would have probably been at risk so I burned them.

As we stayed there things started getting worse and worse. Power was turned off, there was no food, no water. It was hell. I would go days and days with out eating, and I would go days with out bathing. Not by choice, but because I couldn’t. Then day one our social worker come and found my parents crack pipes and called the cops. We were then taken form my mom and dad and put in a foster home. That day was the saddest day in my life. I couldn’t stand seeing my mom and my little sister cry. I had to stay strong. My dad and brother were working when it all happened. They didn’t find out until later that night. My dad and brother were shocked.

We moved in to a foster home with this lady named Jeannie Lee. She was probably the best thing that happened to my family. She supported everything we did. She always encouraged us to do our best and to be the best. We lived there for almost four years. She helped me and my family out in so many ways.

During the time we were in foster car my parents were still heavily on drugs. Then they started going to church and got their act together. We were then allowed to move back with them. That was probably the one of the happiest days of my life. I was so happy too see my parent’s drug free. That about sums it up. We have been living with them now for about 4 years.

These events have shaped me greatly. It has showed me that you cant be “soft” and have to fend for yourself. It has also raised my drug awareness. To this day I can proudly say I have never done any drugs.