I Am Resilient
“‘I Had a Good Get Go.’ That’s what my dad would have said. I was adopted, but I couldn’t have gotten luckier. I was raised with total love from both my parents and all the critters at our farm. Then I ran into a two-legged that stole my heart (a man). Even though I was only 17, I knew he was the one. So we loved, worked and created a business. Soon after, my father passed, then my favourite aunt passed, as well as my mom and then Nana. The man I fell in love with got a sore back that didn’t go away. He was diagnosed with cancer and he was gone three weeks later. That was the hardest funeral. After that, I gave away most tools, sold our house and our saw, which was like our wedding ring. One day, I went to a pub to have a beer and I was drugged by a man at the bar. He kidnapped me, assaulted me and withdrew all the money from my bank account. I later found out I had been missing for 15 days. Before I knew it, I was homeless and living on the street. I was so hurt and emotionally destroyed. It took less than a day on the street to find out crack makes you wake up and feel no pain. Soon I accumulated charges. One day, I walked across the road to an empty parking lot and sat down on a curb. When I looked up, I could see the AADAC building, a recovery centre. I looked back down, and there was a pile of pennies beneath my feet. When I found pennies, it meant something really good or really bad was going to happen. This time there was about 200 of them. I swear my mom had something to do with them. She used to collect them. I went to AADAC for three months and got sober. Now I am growing older and I need to find a new career. These charges that are more than 10 years old may be standing in my way. Stuff can happen to anybody; I thought I was safe and that my life would never change. Shit happens, it can happen to anybody and rather quickly too.”