My family isn’t the most normal family that you would find. When I was younger my parents were barely there for me. My mom and dad both worked 6 days and my sister took care of me. I don’t blame them for having to work, but as a child… I needed them. When my parents were home they favored me over my sister. She would get mad a beat me up when they weren’t home. So, for about 5 years I was hit almost every day. The hitting wasn’t just a simple punch; she would step on my face and throw me against the wall. When my mom would come home and ask me about the scars and bruises, I would say “oh, I fell.” As a child I would always smile and looked as if I didn’t have a care in the world. My parents never bothered to actually talk to me and take care of me.

In 3rd grace we moved to the town where I currently live. It was hard for me to adjust because he learning style and the people were so different. Korean parents hated the fact that me, the new girl was getting all the attention and had told their kids not to play with me because I was bad. My mom heard this and believed everything the parents had said and hit me. She scolded me and hit me for hours, but I wasn’t crying because she was hitting me. I was crying because she didn’t believe me. At the age of 10 I attempted my first suicide.
By the time I reached my freshman year of high school I had known almost everyone and was having a great time. I felt a lot better about myself and was starting to think nothing could go wrong. I met my current best friend, the first day of freshman year. We were awkward and barely talked to each other, but as the school year went by we started to get really close. By the end of freshman year we knew almost everything about each.

Sophomore year started and everything was going better than expected. I was in honors classes and doing very well. Until, my dad took all the money in the house and lost it gambling. There was little to no way of us getting back on our feet. My dad’s sickness got worse and we were now in debt. I had to work 2 jobs and stay on top of my school work. I grades slowly started to drop and I started to lose hope in myself. My mom and my dad were fighting a lot more and my mom wanted to leave my dad. She wanted to go to Korea or go live with her mom and have me stay at a homestay. We tried to figure things out; we knew staying with my dad would only harm us. As things started to get worse, my mom and I decided we were moving to a different town. We found an apartment that we really liked but the landlord couldn’t approve us. My dad had used my mom’s name and made her credit score lower than ever. We couldn’t move to the other town but ended up moving to a one bedroom apartment in the same town.

Now I am junior and I currently live with both my mom and dad. My dad is very sick and can barely eat and move around. My mom works 7 days and I never get to see her. In the mist of all of this my best friend stayed with me through everything. He actually ended up moving next to me and I ended up going to his church. We see each other every day and actually hate each other. But, today he asked me “what would you do if I lost all my memory?” and just thinking about it, I started to tear. Then I asked him, “What would you do if I lost my memory?” and he said “I would tell you that you have the greatest parents, and that you’re going to live a wonderful life.” He said because I’ve lived such a hard life, he wanted to make it better.

Then just recently I found out that I had diabetes… Without even a thought he said “let’s go jogging.” So every other day he takes me jogging and he tries his best to keep me healthy. He makes sure I’m eating the right foods and feeling good about myself.

My best friend stayed with me, knowing what a handful I was. Although, He and I are constantly fighting and making fun of each other we couldn’t possibly care more about each other. Ever since he found out about my diabetes he started to act a little different towards me. So I asked him during our gym class I asked him “Why are you being so nice to me?” and he answered “Because you’re going to die.” Then I asked him “I thought you were going to save me?” and he said “I am.” Thank you, best friend.