1.NIGHT TIME ROBBERS

One night I wake up starving and really wanting a snack but because I was maybe 6 years old I was not supposed to get up in the middle of the night to eat and sneak snakes up to my room. I went and crept down out of my bed and down the stairs. I went slowly down the hallway avoiding all of the squeaky planks of wood that made up the floor as I slowly snuck past my parents room.
         

I reached into a squeaky cupboard and grabbed a small bag of fruit snacks. In my head, I felt like a mouse sneaking around searching the house for bits of food.
         

As I held on tightly to my stolen snack and started to make my way back to the stairs but I was going fast and wasn't looking so I ended up fumbling into my older brother Preston. He looked down at my hands still gripping the bag of fruit snacks and then we exchanged looks and went our separate ways.
         

That night Preston and I made a silent promise to never speak of our secret night time robberies in the kitchen.

2) BUCKETS OF WEEDS

When I was in about 4th grade my mom told me that if I wanted to earn some money that I could weed the driveway ( The driveway was a rock driveway so there were always weeds in the spring and summer time.). She hated having weeds so much that she decided to just have me weed and pay me for it since I would always ask for money to go buy a snack at the corner market. So for every bucket of weeds, I filled I would get 50 cents.
         

It took me about 20 to 30 min to fill one bucket with weeds mostly because the bucket I had to fill was one of those 5-gallon buckets and the weeds in the area I did were so small and it took forever to get the job done.
         

It took me till the end of summer to realize that the weeds over by the garage were larger and filled the bucket much faster but once I found that out my mom had my older brother use weed killer to kill all the weeds in the driveway.
         

I might have only made around 10 dollars total from all my work but to me, that small bit of money was worth a million bucks because I learned that having money and earning it means doing work. I learned that you can’t lay around and ask for money because money doesn't grow on trees even if there is a tree called a money tree.

3) FIRST SHORT STORY

In my 3rd grade English class, we had to write a short story. The assignment was to write and illustrate a short story about anything we liked (As long as it was school appropriate of course.) but it had to be a fiction story. I somehow decided to write mine about a girl and her friends in a haunted house filled with ghosts and monsters. The story turned out more funny rather than scary but what I got out of it made it all worth it.
I never forgot about having to write my first short story because it opened me up to a new world of experiences, writing the story you could say set off a light in me and ever since then made me love writing.
Writing helped me through a lot of hard times and helped me through so much but if I wouldn't have written that story I don't think I would be the writer I am today.

4) MOMMY’S MINI ME

I've always been a Mommy’s girl, but I also was a mini of my Mom. We both had blonde hair that was bright and glimmered in the sunlight and we both had bright green eyes that looked like summer grass with small yellow flowers popping up here and there. I have her face shape and her body type.  I've always been Mommy’s little mini.

We both love books and older styled movies. We like summer and only like the snow of winter. But my mom can’t sing or draw, she does not like to write or skate on ice.

So maybe I’m not fully my Mom's mini because maybe I’m just me.

5) SNOWMAN DAY

My whole childhood I never got to celebrate Christmas, not because it was against our religion considering I grew up in a Baptist family and my Father was a preacher but because my Dad wouldn't let us. Instead, we had snowman day, snowman day took place on the first Saturday of winter break so about a week before real Christmas.

It was nice to have a holiday that only my family had but it made me feel left out because I didn't get to believe in a Santa or wake up to get presents out from under a beautiful Christmas tree.

I did, however, learn to be different and that being different was okay.

Now I celebrate Christmas with my mom and I have the joy of Christmas and don't feel left out but snowman day is forever a part of who I am.

6) STAIRWAY TEARS

I and my siblings are crowded together at the top of the stairs, Brittany my older sister is holding my hand tightly. We both have tear-stained faces as we listen to the never ending fighting of our parents. We hear nothing but yelling and we both wish we could go stop the fighting but last time I ran
We both say it will be okay to our worried little brother, but we both know a divorce is soon to happen.
In my head, all I can think is how badly I wish the fighting would stop.
All of us just lay at the top of the stars till we get too sleepy to stay awake. Together we would all share the floor, too sad to move and crawl back into our own beds.

7) THE BREAK UP

When I was in 5th grade my Mom divorced my Father, she could no longer act like she was happy being with him. We all saw the divorce coming for the most part, but it was still so hard to deal with. My Father moved out without telling us kids about it so we didn't know where he was.

He had moved to Sharonville in Cincinnati, my Mom got main custody of us kids, but that’s a good thing because none of us wanted to have to stay with him. My dad has always been verbally abusive and hurts everyone around him, not seeing him all the time was a relief.

Even though the divorce hurt it was what was best for everyone. When my parents were together no one could be happy or be themselves and as young kids, we needed to be able to be ourselves.

The divorce was hard mostly on my little brother David because he did not understand why it was happening. To him, the world around him was crumbling down, but he knew with them together everyone was standing on shaky ground.

8) THE MOVE AWAY FROM MILL STREET

My first year at the middle school was the year I moved. My mom, my siblings and I moved into a two bedroom two story townhouse apartment. The doors were hollow and the walls a wreck. The fridge was tiny and the washer was broke. My mom had to sleep on the couch while my two brothers shared one room and my sister and I shared the other. It was cramped and crowded and so much different that the house but we made it work and I think maybe we even grew closer together.

I was lucky enough to not have moved out of my school district but still I had no friends because all of the friends I had moved on to better friends I guess.

It was hard to move, but my Mom couldn't afford for us to live in the house anymore. It was weird to say I lived in an apartment and felt judged because of it, mostly because the apartment wasn't as nice as it was said to be.

Luckily I found friends who didn't mind that I lived in a cramped up apartment because they wanted to be friends with me for me. Even though I was the girl that lived in the two bedroom apartment with 4 other people most people knew me as just Abby.

9) FIGHT NIGHT

This was a night that really did change my life.

I was just getting home from boxing lessons when a friend of mine Rachel asks me if I want to go to a fight night this with her. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go, but I ended up going to get out of my house.

At fight night, I met a guy named Paul. He and I spent the whole night doing nothing but talk while sitting on a loveseat.

From the moment I saw him walk over to sit by me I knew I wanted to be with him. His chocolate brown eyes and cute crooked smile made my heart melt. The touch of his skin and the sound of his voice made my palms sweat. The night was perfect and I didn't want it to ever end.

Sadly though the night had to come to an end but by the time, we said good night it was practically morning. I gave him my kik and number and we talked all night till he fell asleep.

The next morning I even made Rachel get up early just so I could go to church with her and see him.
I was head over heels in love with a guy I didn't fully know but in my heart, it was like I had known him forever.

10) FRESH MEAT

Having to wake up in the morning for my first year of high school always sucks. You get to go into bigger school and get to be at the bottom of the food chain. For me, it was worse because I was going into a new school with no one by my side. Rachel had gotten home schooled and I had no friends in my classes that I was close to at all.

As a freshman, I along with all my classmates got the nickname of fresh meat but the truth was only half of my grade were still virgins so the nickname didn't really match up.  They called us it anyways, but you know as a freshman you deal with a lot of crap from upperclassmen.

For me the year was horrible, I was tired all the time and had a hard time keeping up in school. I was so unhappy, but I got through the year no matter how hard.

11) THE LAST TEXT

It was around Christmas time when I and Paul stopped talking for a while. He had a girlfriend and said he loved her, hearing that broke my heart. I felt like I was falling apart inside, I was hurting so much. I was so in love with Paul that I couldn't help but cry till my eyes burned like fire.

I was able to say to him a few last things...

I told him that I would forever wait for him because even if he does not think he is worth waiting for he really was. I told him the love I had for him would never end and that deep down I knew he felt the same way even if he was too scared to say it out loud.

That night made me break inside and out and I didn't want to keep going, but I had to because I knew one day Paul would see that I was the one he wanted to be with.
My last text to him was goodbye… I love you.

12)  NEW BEGINNING

 I was walking out of art class when my phone buzzed. I looked down at the screen and there was his name, Paul, plain as day on my screen, but I still had to check twice to make sure it was him. When I knew it was him I wanted to slap him across the face and then kiss him. I felt hurt but also was so happy that I was with him.
         

I walked to math class stunted and told my friend Jessica. Paul sent me a text that said “I still love you. Do you still love me?” my friend tried to text him and say sorry but I don't but I took the phone and told her I couldn't say that because I never stopped loving him.
         

Being with Paul and talking to him always made me feel better and he made me happy. At the time that he texted me out of the blue, I felt like I wanted to die but he made that feeling go away without even trying. I never knew someone could make me feel the way he did, but somehow he did.
         

Being with him always made everything better and I couldn't have asked for anyone else. The happiness he brought was like no other.

13) MAY 5, 2014

 On this day I woke up sad, I had no idea why I felt the way I did. I spent the day texting Paul and I asked him a simple question
         

“Why haven’t you asked me out yet?”
         

His answer was that he wanted to prove to himself that he would stay committed to me for forever.
         

Knowing that made my day so much better and I so much happier but I still felt sad for no real reason.
         

I got done with track practice for the day and was walking home. I started crying out of control while I walked along the sidewalk. I told Paul what was going on and he sent me a text saying...
         

“Will you go out with me?”
         

My tears of sadness turned into tears of joy. I smiled and smiled all the way home. I told Paul yes and we both said three words that we have been saying ever since.
         

I LOVE YOU!

14) TELLING MY FATHER GOODBYE

 It was almost the end of summer and I hadn't seen my Father in two weeks. The last time I saw him he came and got my little brother and left me at my moms. He didn't bother taking me and I was happy because the truth was I didn't want to see him. He hurt me with words that I could never say. He made me feel like my life didn't matter. To him, I was not important because I wasn't something he could control anymore.
He came to pick us all up and I walked outside. I was shaking and scared of what I was going to say. I opened my mouth and told him I never wanted to come over again. He didn't look sad or mad. He was done dealing with me. His last words to me were “I'm done dealing with this, bye”.
         

He got in his car with my brothers in the back and drove off. I walked in and my mom held me tight. I asked her why she looked so upset and she told me that she thought I’d be upset, but I was happy because he couldn't hurt me anymore.

14) MY START IN WRITING

I started really getting into writing my freshman year of high school. I loved writing essays and I'm sure not very many students say that but I did I had a love for writing assignments, even essays.

My first real writing project I did however on my own was a short book called My Life Upside Down, I worked on it for months before it was ready in my mind. In all honesty, it might not be the best book but it was my book about my life. It was personal and I dedicated myself to it.

I started writing the book for myself and I didn't want anyone else to read it, but the truth was others needed to read it. The book might not have had the best spelling or grammar, but the story I was trying to tell was one I felt needed to be heard or seen.

It was a big risk to me because the story I would be telling was one I felt I couldn't face, but I had to and did.
Almost a year later I went back to finish the book fully and see about submitting it someplace and then I did.
By doing that I found a world of people who thought the same as I did, they felt that the story was one that needed to be shared.