Often growing up, I wondered how different my life would be if I had a “normal family.”, a mom, a dad, and a home with a white picket fence. Of course, I loved my great-grandparents and wasn’t unhappy with them. But, like most children, I wanted my mother. She was in and out of prison my whole childhood. Throughout my elementary school years, I wasn’t exactly a model student. I was suspended around six times and often got in trouble for talking too loud or not doing my work. I didn’t have many friends and got picked on. Despite this, I was always very creative, and my reading level was consistently ahead of my grade level. Fifth grade is when my world turned upside down. Around a year after my great-grandfather had passed away, my great-grandmother passed. I had already been struggling with depression, and the loss of her crushed me. At this point in my life, my mother had been out of prison for around a year and was living with my new baby brother and her boyfriend. I moved in with them. My mom and her boyfriend started arguing more often. Bickering would turn into screaming matches, which soon turned into physical fights. When I started middle school, I had to switch schools. My new school was unlike anything I had experienced before. My home life bled into my schooling. I was loud, desperate for the attention I didn't get at home. I didn't care if it was negative or positive. I just wanted to be heard. I often got into fights. My emotions would build up inside until I exploded. In seventh grade, I transferred schools, but not much changed. My home life continued to get worse. The middle of seventh grade is when I finally snapped. I had been in my room, listening to the sound of my mom and her boyfriend fighting and I decided I needed to call the cops. It was the hardest thing I had ever done. Soon after, my mom's boyfriend was arrested. It was just me, my mom, and my siblings. Three months later, my brother's grandma arrived at my house. My mom had been gone for a whole day, I was watching my siblings. She told me that my mother had been arrested. My world crashed down around me once again. I went to live with my great-aunt and uncle, my brother with his grandparents, and my sister with my cousin. I was transferred to Carlisle Middle School about a week after moving in with them. It was a difficult adjustment. During the rest of middle school, I still struggled, but I started to become motivated. High school is where things took a turn for the better. I started applying myself in school, doing my work, and getting involved. I found my passion for writing, social justice, and theater. I wanted to be successful. I started to see results. I was on the honor roll every semester and my GPA was always above a 3.3. I don't know what my future will hold, but what I do know is that I want to help others. I plan to apply to Des Moines Area Community College and study social work or therapy. My life experience and the adversity I've faced have driven me to want to be able to make a difference in people's lives. I want to be the person that I needed back then for others in the future. Giving children and adults someone to rely on, even when they feel like their world is falling down.