You see families are really complicated but wait you already knew that. My family, however, is slightly more complicated than most people I know, my biological mom died when I was just four, my brother was raised by my grandmother away from me who was left to my distraught father. From the time I was five until age eleven, we lived with my godparents which as many people may have found it to be was CONFUSING.

I went from having two parents to one, then to have three. My point is I was a very confused kid especially when my dad up and remarried in the middle of my very awkward teen years (shout out to sparkly eyeshadow and braces). My teen years were rough just as many of yours probably were (or are), I ran through ways to escape my life and sometimes even how to end it. I often pondered if other kids grew up as I did, feeling alien in their own homes, their own families. I've come to see that you and I aren't all that different, there are lots of us who grew up without one parent whether it be through one awful circumstance or another. We grow stronger through this.