I believe that the impacts on your life form who you are and help create the person you are today. I believe that everyone has their own personal struggles that help them have a better and more clear look on life in general, because you never know what someone else is going through. I also believe the way you were brought up, helps to form who you are as a person. For instance, based on my upbringing, I’m pretty independent, and don’t rely on anyone for a lot of things. I do things on my own because I knew what it was like for my mother to raise a child by herself.

To say growing up without a father wasn’t hard, would be the biggest lie I’d ever tell. Growing up with just the help of my single mother, has made the most impact on the person I have been formed into today. I first realized that I didn’t have a father around the time we were all in kindergarten. You’d get the typical questions from your teachers, asking about each of your parents. I then realized that I only recognized my mother as my parent, and couldn’t quite put a finger on who my father was. Yes, I grew up living with my mother and my grandfather, but I knew he wasn’t my father. Considering the age of most kindergartners, the filter hadn’t developed yet. Most younger children don’t know what questions are appropriate to ask depending on other children's’ situations. For example, growing up I was always asked the question on “What’s your dad like?” or “Where’s your dad?” and I always just had to shrug. I never got the chance to talk about being a ‘Daddy’s Girl’ or to talk about how my dad came to my sports events. But once we all aged, more and more people had started asking about him, questioning where he was.

It wasn’t until middle school, where I realized the struggle of having to deal without a second parent. Obviously the jump from elementary school to middle school is fairly big, and obviously the classes and students got more intimidating and more frustrating, but that just taught me how to be more independent. It also wasn't until middle school where I found out the background information about where my father was, and the cold truth about what had happened.

My mother figured that by 6th grade I was old enough to know why my father wasn't a part of my life. She told me it was because my father had left us when I was just a few months old. He couldn't stand the fact that he had a child at a young age and didn't know how to afford one. That's when he decided to get up and go, without ever making contact with me.

It wasn't until April 29, 2014 where I had first heard from my father ever. I remember perfectly, waking up that day for school to a Facebook message that I thought I'd never get. It was a message apologizing for not being in my life, and a message asking if he could start being a part of my life. But why did it take 17 years of my life for him to finally want to interact with me? Was it due to the fact that he had four other children to take care of in Florida? Or was he simply scared to get rejected by me? What made his other four children any better than me? I'll never know the reason as to why he finally wanted to reach out to me because I instantly blocked him from messaging me. He didn't deserve to talk to me after 17 years. He had his chance at a court date, one for which he never showed up for, to be able to keep in contact and give money to help raise me. But, he couldn't even show up to court, and I'm glad he didn't.

I can almost promise you, my life hasn't been easy as it sometimes may seem. I understand I come across as everything's always okay, but I'm pretty down on myself when I realize I was abandoned at such a young age. But, it's made me stronger, and made me not take any shit from anyone. Sometimes, I let people walk all over me, then I realize that I was walked all over when he decided to walk back into my life. So, I try not to let anyone tell me my life's easy.

I 100 percent believe that events from your upbringing, impact who you are today as a person. The strength that not only I have, but my mother has, has to do with the fact that we only had one parent to support me. Although growing up with only one parent is very difficult, it's also made me realize a lot of strengths about myself. I've matured a lot faster than a lot of people my age, I'm very independent, and I do things on my own. I don't need the support of two parents when I've got my mom who puts in 200 percent each week to help support us. Watching my mother form into the strongest lady I know has been the most inspirational thing in my life. And that is why I believe that people are formed into who they are supposed to be based on impacting events.