My Life So Far
My name is Tonya. I'm a 17-year-old female who had a pretty rough life. It started at 14. I started using drugs and started running away from home. I didn't have the best of home life. I've never got along with my dad. I argue too much with my mom. I have all older bros and no sisters or younger siblings. So when I started acting out everyone looked at me as the problem child. When I was in 7 th grade I was raped near my middle school and no one helped. I felt helpless and abandoned. No one believed me at first so that hurt really bad. I acted out in hate toward everyone, especially men at that point. My life was hard. I got kicked out of school so that's when I started searching myself to better my education. After a year I finally got the number for this alternative school called Helensview and they told me to come and have orientations. I was almost 15 by then. After I started here I thought I would never want to leave. The teachers and staff treated me like family. They took me under their wings and kept reassuring me that I could do anything I put my mind to. Almost half-way into my Freshman year I got accepted onto student council, which plays a huge role at this school. Don't get me wrong. I got into fights, but nothing too serious. Then last year, my Sophomore year, I was still doing some bad things but eventually I got tired of it and realized that I needed and had to make a change. So I focused on school and things to try to better my life. For instance getting a job, falling in love with my fiancé and bettering my relationship with my family. Things slowly but surely got better and it seems like my life went from records reading “consistent runaway” to no more reports of being a runaway. Now it's my Junior year and I'm graduating this year, all thanks to my school, Helensview.