Punishment For A Crime You Didn't Commit.

I have never been rich, by any means, but I have also never really been poor either.

I had to go to my very first food bank today. I wasn't working them like I usually do. No, I had to go for food. My very first time ever on the other side of the food chain... literally.

None of us really like to talk about poverty. I sure never did. It makes people sad or upset, but really it shouldn't. It should be something that we talk about openly.

I had never truly met anyone that had lived in poverty before my current relationship. Now, I only know what has been told to me by himself and his family. I know a piece of their story. I have been given permission to share his story with all of you. I will also throw a little bit of my own perspective in there as well.

No child gets to choose how they grew up, their family, or their situation. All they can do is get through it and learn from it. That is why I am writing about this today. I was asked to write a piece on poverty because D wanted everyone to know his story. To read it, learn from it, and love it.

When D was born, his parents where on drugs. They popped pills and Adderall on a regular basis. This continued throughout his fathers military career. His life on the military base was good. He liked where he lived and had some of the best memories there.

When he was about 12, his parents started doing more hardcore drugs; Meth and Alcohol.

His father was an alcoholic and his mother was popping pain pills and doing meth as well.

They decided to go on vacation with their uncle to Texas because his father had saved up days from the military. The military wouldn't give his father the leave he was asking for, the extended days that he had saved up. They went on the vacation and his father decided to take the extended days he saved up and go anyways. The military declared him AWOL, they didn't have anywhere else to go so they decided to go to Ohio to lay low with a military buddy of his fathers. They stayed there for about six months and decided to go back to the outskirts of North Carolina to hide out. They stayed in hotels and apartment jumped with his fathers soldiers for about 4 months before his father turned himself in.

After his father turned himself in, his mother used what was left of their savings to get an apartment, with the help of his grandfather in Porter, TX. His father would send his mother money for the apartment and drugs. They lived in the apartment for 3 to 4 months. His father got out of jail and they all lived in the apartment together. The first two months together were physically abusive, no real food, and lots of drug using. His mother was still on drugs and that caused his father to start using again. His father would hit his mother for being on drugs and would be aggressive and abusive towards his children as well.

His parents weren't paying any bills at the time so they got evicted from their house but, they didn't leave. They stayed for about another month with no heat, water, or electricity. They made fires to stay warm inside of the home and barely had any food to last them the time there.

They left the home and went to The Salvation Army. Thats when they would move homeless shelters because of his parents being on drugs. They slept on park benches, in the woods, and in cheap motels with his grandfathers money. They walked the streets of Downtown Houston for miles on end to go to school and to get drugs. His parents used their money for drugs instead of food. He would have to steal food and dumpster dive in order to eat.

He wouldn't go to school because he didn't have any clean clothes. The walk to school would be 6 miles sometimes and he wouldn't be able to get there and eat a good meal before classes started. The children at his school would make fun of him for the smell or the shoes that he wore. So, he stopped going.

This cycle continued until he was 15 years old. For two years he slept on park benches, didn't go to school, and couldn't eat a good meal to save his life.

At 15 years old, D made a huge decision. He left his parents and his little brother and removed himself from the life he was living. It followed him for sure. Nothing could erase how he grew up. He did some hood-rat things and things he is not proud of. But he removed himself from the things he grew up with and tried to be better.

A year later, his parents decided to get help with their addictions.

He is currently 18 years old, living in an actual house with his family, parents are 3 years sober, and he graduated high school. Things that he, and others, would have never expected for himself.

He tells me that people think it gets better but it doesn't. He is left with emotional scarring that is really hard to get over and fix. He has PTSD in a sense. He has a hard time getting adjusted to being a regular kid in a good area with "normal people issues."

I, personally, think that his story is amazing. His parents story of addiction and how they overcame it. The story of D and how he has managed to become what we consider a "normal teenager" is exciting to me.

I wrote this piece because it speaks to me. It shows me that everyone has a backstory that may not be so great, even though they look great on the outside.

Poverty isn't in someones face or mind, its in their heart and the struggles they had to go through.

We should want to learn about poverty and they people that go through it. We should want to take strides in order to make it stop.