Hello my name is Jessica, I am 19 years old. My life isn't like any other nineteen years olds. I have a lot of responsibilities that most people in their early twenties don't have. From the moment my family was torn apart my life changed for the worse. I am going to tell you what I have been through these last 5 years that makes me so different from other teenagers.
A few months after I turned 14 I heard the horrifying news that my parents were going to get divorced. I knew they had problems and that they fought a lot but I had no idea that it was that bad. My father would get drunk and then him and my mother would fight. He would hit my mom we he got angry. Their fighting had been going on for as long as I can remember and it scared me even more when it lead to violence. My mother would tell him not to let his anger get the better of him and when it did she begged him not to hit her in front us me and my two younger brothers Anthony and Chris. But that would only seem to make him even more upset.
Their divorce was an ugly one. The only way that they would talk was through their lawyers. Once the divorce was final and my father got custody of me and my brothers our lives changed drastically. We moved from our apartment in the city to a place in the suburbs. Our father took us out of school in the middle of the year. Once we moved and started in our new schools I started to rebel. I started skipping school doing drugs and being completely uncontrollable. my father had no idea what to do with me so he would hit me thinking that that would change my ways. It didn't it only made me want to act out even more. Pretty soon I wasn't coming home and I started to sleep around. By the time my freshman year was over I was already doing hardcore drugs.
During the summer I met this guy named Julio. He was a was a wonderful guy except he was 3 years older than me. I dated him because I knew my father wouldn't approve of me dating outside of my race and to someone who was older than me.