Growing Up by Kalese W.
Growing up, there was a lot of bad. My mom abused me and left, my dad was in
jail, my grandma was always working, and my pap was always outside or out drinking.
Even when Nunnie and Pap were home, they were usually annoyed or drunk. This
wouldn’t have been too bad if I was alone, but I had a little brother that I had to care for.
Even now he agrees that I had to mother him when I was still much too young for that
responsibility. I also cared for the cats that would be dropped off at our house and all of
the kittens that came from those cats. On top of everything, I was also struggling with
depression and who I was as a person.
Through all this bad though, there was still good. Nunnie would rock me to sleep
while reading me a story and Pap would show me how to do things around the garage.
My friend Mack and I would run around outside until dark and jump on the trampoline
until our legs gave out. Best of all, Dad came home. After a while, he even brought a
woman and her daughter to live with us, and they became my stepmom and my little
sister, Cali.
Then there was some more bad, like when we got kicked out of what I thought
would be the house we lived in forever. But of course, with more bad came more good.
I was allowed to get a kitten that I named Muffin and love dearly. I was also able
to get a hamster that I named Sherman and who very much enjoys chewing on the bars
of her cage to demand attention. Through this time, I’ve also gained two little brothers,
Ike and Odin. Ike, who’s 3 now, is my little buddy, and he knew how to say Pusser, my
family nickname, better than Cali did, who deemed me Pea Sue. Odin is only 1, and he
still doesn’t know how to say Pusser, but there’s still time. In the meanwhile, he calls
me sissy and loves to communicate in screams and steal my phone. He can’t even run
yet, so he just waddles away with the cutest little grin on his face and little growls
spilling from his mouth. I’ve stopped letting my depression and anxiety rule my life, and
I’ve become a better person because of it. I’ve grown closer to my family and made
more friends, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
I believe that even though life may be hard and even mean sometimes, there is
still so much good and happiness to be taken from it. I believe that one has to choose
to ignore the bad and focus on the good. I chose to change my life and I will never
regret that decision.
