Turning My Bad Experiences into Motivation

In my experience of a troubled childhood, I have learned in several instances that life is not fair. It all started when I discovered (at the age of six) that my mother had been involved in a car accident driving home from work that had killed another driver. I went to school the next day with no idea that my mom would be incarcerated and was severely injured. A fellow classmate walked up to me and told me: "Your mom is a murderer and deserves to stay in jail." She stayed in a minimum security prison for a few years, but upon release, she moved away with a woman she fell in love with. I did not see her for another two years.

During my mother's absence my grandfather, the major male role model in my life, had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer. My grandfather went through four long years of treatments before he lost his fight in our home in hospice care. At my grandfather's deathbed, my mother reappeared. It was seven weeks after, that my grandmother and I were driving getting groceries that we drove past my mother's apartment and discovered an ambulance. We pull over out of concern, and I remember seeing the medics wheeling a body bag out of her apartment. I remember collapsing with complete silence around because I knew that it was my mom. She had OD'd with the very same medicine that my grandfather had used to ease his pain in the last days of his life.

At the age of fourteen, I was left with just my grandmother and a lot of anger towards the world. Over the next couple of years, I became overwhelmed with depression and anxiety. At the age of sixteen, I began to work numerous jobs to save for college. I also set the goal to graduate high school a year early. In doing so, I applied to as many scholarships as possible.

I received a full ride to JSU solely based on the reaction to terrible events in my life. I used my experiences as motivation to become actively involved in community service which landed me a scholarship from RMC. Had I not experienced life's hardships at a young age, I would not have received the opportunity to further my education. This is why I say that sometimes you can be unfortunately fortunate.