First off, I think it is important to know what factors came into play to get me where I am now. Things started changing quite a bit during my middle school year, however, events that took place before the start of that helped me learn mistakes I did not want to make in the future, so here they are.
The summer of 2001 before I was to start middle school was blissful. I had a few, not many, friends around the Meadows trailer park on County Line Road. There was Sheryl, Terry, and Suzie Smart. They were awesome. Then there was Kyler, Dustin, and Kelcey, children of Dave and Val Fuller. And Josette Gilliam and her 3 boys, Zach, Jared, and Justin. Then there was Lindsey, Ashley, and Tyler Langlois. These people made my family's summers quite enjoyable, with kickball, and hide and seek, and playing in the cornfields, as well as building a tree house. These are the memories you keep with you. This is not the case inside the home of 2525 SW 80th, LOT 325 (My 'humble' abode). In between, I'd say June and July, my mother and father got in this huge arguement. Something about talking to someone else. I mean, you hear other kids say their parents are divorced, but did we ever think it was something that would happen to us? Yes, actually, we did. My father, who was an abusive drunk, and my mother who was an alcoholic. So they chased each other around the house, and then mother yelled for us to get our things and pack, we were going to stay with a friend.
We got our things packed and said our goodbyes the next day. All my mother had at the time was a maroon van, so Tena, Jess, Cinda, and I all packed into the van with our stuff. I believe we went Sandy's, a friend of my mothers'. I remember I brought my PS1 along and played some games there. Sandy had two girls, Kendle and Chrissy. Kendle was a mean thing, but Chrissy was so much nicer. We stayed there for a couple of weeks, and then we had to leave. The next place I am sure we went to was some guy named Chuck or Charles. I don't remember anything from this gentleman's house except he had a very nice home. Fancy bathroom and he was a collector of gold coins; a few which happened to sit in my sister's pocket for quite some time. Then we left his place and met up with my mother's boyfriend at some point and he told us we were staying with a friend of his in Knoxville.
This friend of his, my mind is blocking out the name because of what he did. We were there less than a week. It was a duplex? and he had this huge iguana that he had to put a leash on. The first couple of nights were okay. After the third day, it started getting weird. I was playing Zelda and this friend of my mom's boyfriend was asking me questions, just general questions, but kinda staring at me while I was playing. I thought, "this guy is kinda weird" with no thought in my mind that this was a child molester. I was about 10-11 years old. Later, on the last night we were there, I was sleeping and woke to this guy fondling me. I got up, ran to the room my mother was in and told her what happened. She said we were leaving in the morning.
After that, my mother and her boyfriend wanted to move down to Mississippi for some reason, and so we did. The first place I can remember staying at was a Motel6. I remember eating cookie dough from a trash can with my sister because we were so strapped for cash. The package wasn't opened, but yes, it was morbid. Me and my sisters were demanded to acquire cans and bottles for redemption. We learned to fill some cans with trash so they would weigh more for us to get more back. Another brilliant idea Doug had was to invade a house currently under construction and steal copper wire and sell that. We did all this while under the roof of our van or cars in an old dealership. We did cook out a few times when we could. That was a luxury after everything else. It was the first time I tried Okra, which was good. Played at a few parks. The next thing that happened was a bit much for me. I don't know if it's true or not but Doug, from what one of my sisters told me later on in life, had stabbed someone in an empty baseball parking lot. Later on, my mother was found to have been guilty for something and she went to jail as well as Doug. Next thing I know, me and my sister's ended up split into different foster homes. I was in a foster home of about 4 or 5 kids. I think they were all african american, and they were polite but could have done better. I remember sleeping in the top bunk and the kid across from my bunk bed had gotten into some candy. The mother found it the next day. Oh he got a whoopin. The next thing I remember is us being transported to a Baptist Children's Village. By this time it was around September. We got to know a few people, played video games, but had to take turns with about 15 different people. I was in my room and came out to a bunch of people crowded around the tv. I didn't pay much attention because the news never caught my interest as a kid, unless it was about a thunderstorm. I never knew it was about the 9/11 attacks until much later. One night, I was in the shower and they had a scheduled fire drill and I only had time to cover myself in a towel. We went outside and it was cold. I was shivering so badly that I accidently let the towel go and a couple of older guys (about 20-21) laughed. I wanted to just go to sleep. Around the last few days here, our mother came and visited us. We also had arrangements to come back and live with our father, who we came to find out was with another woman. As a kid, I had a lot to go through. The second week we were there, we left. A social worker took us on a train, which went by fast because I tried to sleep a lot.
After 4-5 months of shit, we finally came back home to our father and his fianceé. After the drive, we come home to find out that she brought with her Kelli Young (now Kelli Mahoney), Whitnee Young, Joseph Young, and Jacob Young. Now these were quite some characters. In the first month that we got to know them, they were awesome. Then, after a while, I learned that they manipulate, act out, and compulsively lie. They drink, smoke (cigarettes and weed), and some did drugs. Me and my sisters would turn on each other and the other kids would turn on their family. There were good times as well as bad. This new family even caused problems between everyone we were ever friends with. My father and his fianeé would tell me and my sisters lies about our mother and tell us what to say and try to get information out of her. At first, I wasn't bothered by it because of everything that had happened that we blamed her for, when in reality, she just made mistakes that she would never do again. Eventually, I come to learn that I needed to give her a chance to earn my trust back and decided to visit her. I began to understand her reasons and visited her more often, no matter how many lies my father would tell me and my sisters. Eventually, one of my sisters convinced me to live with her, so I did. She lived at the Meadows as well, but we moved to another trailer park on Army Post Road. Here, we realized that she was still with Doug and we were not too thrilled. From there we moved to many other different places including, West Des Moines, Adel, Winterset, then Newton. I moved back and forth between my mother and father because after living with one for too long, I could not take it. After moving to Adel, I moved back in with my father. That year, I was starting my junior year. I tried getting along with Joe, Jake, and Whitnee...Kelli lived on her own for a while. This was the year that was most difficult for me because I was starting to realize my sexual orientation. I had never kissed a girl, but was with a girl for over 6 months. She was great but I was starting to realize mixed feelings. I broke up with her and sometime later, I pulled my brother Joe aside. I had to tell someone besides my parents. He didn't really help much. So then I told my step-mom Laurie, who understood and said she thought dad should know. I said I wasn't sure but eventually agreed to, as long as it was her that told him so I could go on a walk. I came back and he said he understood as well, saying that he still loves me but kind of disappointed that the family name would never be carried on. I only told a few friends at school. The two people I will remember the most in my life will be Jeremy Sandvig and Allison Svec. They were the most helpful and most supportive and dished out jokes about me right when I needed them. They were the best and I miss them dearly. After high school, I continued to live with my father till that summer, where I went back with my mother, applied to Grand View University, and moved to live in the dorms their. Due to conflicts between finances, family problems, and course load, I only attended for a year and a half and dropped out in the middle of second semester my second year. Since then, I've been working day to day with no real purpose yet. After dropping out of college, things just seem to continue downhill for me and I'm awaiting the day when I can change that.
The summer of 2001 before I was to start middle school was blissful. I had a few, not many, friends around the Meadows trailer park on County Line Road. There was Sheryl, Terry, and Suzie Smart. They were awesome. Then there was Kyler, Dustin, and Kelcey, children of Dave and Val Fuller. And Josette Gilliam and her 3 boys, Zach, Jared, and Justin. Then there was Lindsey, Ashley, and Tyler Langlois. These people made my family's summers quite enjoyable, with kickball, and hide and seek, and playing in the cornfields, as well as building a tree house. These are the memories you keep with you. This is not the case inside the home of 2525 SW 80th, LOT 325 (My 'humble' abode). In between, I'd say June and July, my mother and father got in this huge arguement. Something about talking to someone else. I mean, you hear other kids say their parents are divorced, but did we ever think it was something that would happen to us? Yes, actually, we did. My father, who was an abusive drunk, and my mother who was an alcoholic. So they chased each other around the house, and then mother yelled for us to get our things and pack, we were going to stay with a friend.
We got our things packed and said our goodbyes the next day. All my mother had at the time was a maroon van, so Tena, Jess, Cinda, and I all packed into the van with our stuff. I believe we went Sandy's, a friend of my mothers'. I remember I brought my PS1 along and played some games there. Sandy had two girls, Kendle and Chrissy. Kendle was a mean thing, but Chrissy was so much nicer. We stayed there for a couple of weeks, and then we had to leave. The next place I am sure we went to was some guy named Chuck or Charles. I don't remember anything from this gentleman's house except he had a very nice home. Fancy bathroom and he was a collector of gold coins; a few which happened to sit in my sister's pocket for quite some time. Then we left his place and met up with my mother's boyfriend at some point and he told us we were staying with a friend of his in Knoxville.
This friend of his, my mind is blocking out the name because of what he did. We were there less than a week. It was a duplex? and he had this huge iguana that he had to put a leash on. The first couple of nights were okay. After the third day, it started getting weird. I was playing Zelda and this friend of my mom's boyfriend was asking me questions, just general questions, but kinda staring at me while I was playing. I thought, "this guy is kinda weird" with no thought in my mind that this was a child molester. I was about 10-11 years old. Later, on the last night we were there, I was sleeping and woke to this guy fondling me. I got up, ran to the room my mother was in and told her what happened. She said we were leaving in the morning.
After that, my mother and her boyfriend wanted to move down to Mississippi for some reason, and so we did. The first place I can remember staying at was a Motel6. I remember eating cookie dough from a trash can with my sister because we were so strapped for cash. The package wasn't opened, but yes, it was morbid. Me and my sisters were demanded to acquire cans and bottles for redemption. We learned to fill some cans with trash so they would weigh more for us to get more back. Another brilliant idea Doug had was to invade a house currently under construction and steal copper wire and sell that. We did all this while under the roof of our van or cars in an old dealership. We did cook out a few times when we could. That was a luxury after everything else. It was the first time I tried Okra, which was good. Played at a few parks. The next thing that happened was a bit much for me. I don't know if it's true or not but Doug, from what one of my sisters told me later on in life, had stabbed someone in an empty baseball parking lot. Later on, my mother was found to have been guilty for something and she went to jail as well as Doug. Next thing I know, me and my sister's ended up split into different foster homes. I was in a foster home of about 4 or 5 kids. I think they were all african american, and they were polite but could have done better. I remember sleeping in the top bunk and the kid across from my bunk bed had gotten into some candy. The mother found it the next day. Oh he got a whoopin. The next thing I remember is us being transported to a Baptist Children's Village. By this time it was around September. We got to know a few people, played video games, but had to take turns with about 15 different people. I was in my room and came out to a bunch of people crowded around the tv. I didn't pay much attention because the news never caught my interest as a kid, unless it was about a thunderstorm. I never knew it was about the 9/11 attacks until much later. One night, I was in the shower and they had a scheduled fire drill and I only had time to cover myself in a towel. We went outside and it was cold. I was shivering so badly that I accidently let the towel go and a couple of older guys (about 20-21) laughed. I wanted to just go to sleep. Around the last few days here, our mother came and visited us. We also had arrangements to come back and live with our father, who we came to find out was with another woman. As a kid, I had a lot to go through. The second week we were there, we left. A social worker took us on a train, which went by fast because I tried to sleep a lot.
After 4-5 months of shit, we finally came back home to our father and his fianceé. After the drive, we come home to find out that she brought with her Kelli Young (now Kelli Mahoney), Whitnee Young, Joseph Young, and Jacob Young. Now these were quite some characters. In the first month that we got to know them, they were awesome. Then, after a while, I learned that they manipulate, act out, and compulsively lie. They drink, smoke (cigarettes and weed), and some did drugs. Me and my sisters would turn on each other and the other kids would turn on their family. There were good times as well as bad. This new family even caused problems between everyone we were ever friends with. My father and his fianeé would tell me and my sisters lies about our mother and tell us what to say and try to get information out of her. At first, I wasn't bothered by it because of everything that had happened that we blamed her for, when in reality, she just made mistakes that she would never do again. Eventually, I come to learn that I needed to give her a chance to earn my trust back and decided to visit her. I began to understand her reasons and visited her more often, no matter how many lies my father would tell me and my sisters. Eventually, one of my sisters convinced me to live with her, so I did. She lived at the Meadows as well, but we moved to another trailer park on Army Post Road. Here, we realized that she was still with Doug and we were not too thrilled. From there we moved to many other different places including, West Des Moines, Adel, Winterset, then Newton. I moved back and forth between my mother and father because after living with one for too long, I could not take it. After moving to Adel, I moved back in with my father. That year, I was starting my junior year. I tried getting along with Joe, Jake, and Whitnee...Kelli lived on her own for a while. This was the year that was most difficult for me because I was starting to realize my sexual orientation. I had never kissed a girl, but was with a girl for over 6 months. She was great but I was starting to realize mixed feelings. I broke up with her and sometime later, I pulled my brother Joe aside. I had to tell someone besides my parents. He didn't really help much. So then I told my step-mom Laurie, who understood and said she thought dad should know. I said I wasn't sure but eventually agreed to, as long as it was her that told him so I could go on a walk. I came back and he said he understood as well, saying that he still loves me but kind of disappointed that the family name would never be carried on. I only told a few friends at school. The two people I will remember the most in my life will be Jeremy Sandvig and Allison Svec. They were the most helpful and most supportive and dished out jokes about me right when I needed them. They were the best and I miss them dearly. After high school, I continued to live with my father till that summer, where I went back with my mother, applied to Grand View University, and moved to live in the dorms their. Due to conflicts between finances, family problems, and course load, I only attended for a year and a half and dropped out in the middle of second semester my second year. Since then, I've been working day to day with no real purpose yet. After dropping out of college, things just seem to continue downhill for me and I'm awaiting the day when I can change that.