As a young girl growing up, I have
seen and been through a lot of things. I have met a lot of different characters
and have been to a lot of different places. Going through all of these
different changes I knew one thing was for certain, my big sister was always
there with me, and it was Tiffany and Timeka against the world.
It all started when I was about one
maybe one and a half, my grandma (which was actually my great-aunt) got custody
of me and my big sister since my mother couldn’t care for us. My grandma’s name
was Bernadine; she moved me and my sister from a raggedy apartment on the south
side of Chicago to a beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house in the southern
suburb Calumet City. We had two cousins that we were very close to named
Shannyn and Shaina. They are older than us by a few years, but we played
together as if we were the same age. Bernadine was actually their grandmother,
but since she raised me and my sister we called her grandma too.
As the years went by my grandmother
fell sick; she had breast cancer. She was doing really well with staying
healthy for a while, but when me and my sister turned about 8 and 10 she fell
sick again apparently she was on the wrong chemotherapy. My grandma was so sick
she could not walk and she lost strength in her arms to, she was no longer able
to care for herself. At the age of 11, I took on the responsibility of caring
for her. I loved her more than anything in the world and I would do whatever
she asked of me.
I would wake up in the morning, get
dressed, and off to school I went. As soon as the bell rang at 2:25 pm, I would
rush to my locker to gather my belongings and would rush home (also so I
wouldn’t get caught up in the after school madness with the other kids) to be
with my grandma. After about two years of that, my grandmother’s daughter (her
name’s Demetra), felt as if caring for my grandmother was too much
responsibility for me and my sister, so she allowed us all to move into her
house where my grandma would have more help. So now we’ve moved from Calumet
City to Glenwood and I was in the 6th grade. I didn’t want to move.
I don’t really like change, but I had to I transferred from Dirksen Middle School
to Brookwood Middle School. All the kids there were different from me, I
noticed instantly they dressed different; they talked different; they were very
polite. I instantly felt as if I wasn’t going to fit in. I stayed there and
finished out my 6th grade year and over time I met new people and
actually made some friends.
However, we moved again. This time it
was to the next city over called Chicago Heights. I had to transfer again, but
this time it was my 7th grade year. I now went to Parker Junior High.
Just like at Brookwood it took me a while to adjust. Eventually, I did and
actually even liked it there. By this time I was about 12 and me, my sister, and
my cousin Shannyn have come up with a plan to have shifts to help out our
grandma. We did days, so Shannyn would be Monday, me Tuesday, and my sister Timeka
Wednesday and we repeated through the week. So one Wednesday it was my sister’s
shift to care for my grandma and since I didn’t have to I decided to go out to
the park down the street with a few friends from school. So, we’re playing as
usual and having a good time and we hear a horn honk. Everyone turned to look
to see who it was and it was my sister. She had took the keys to my cousin
Demetras truck and came up to the park. As kids we weren’t aware what was wrong
with that situation, we were just so excited to hop in. As we all hoped in my
sister decided she wanted to press the gas and make a left turn over the curb
going into the parking lot. That’s when
everything went sideways. We flipped! Everyone crawled out of the broken windows;
nobody was seriously hurt, thank god! But that’s when we had come back to the
reality of the situation. I was scared of what was going to happen to my sister
and myself because everything she did, people always assumed I knew because we
were close but that was not always the case. I ran home crying to tell them
what had happened and they all rushed down to park to see. Demetra was mad and
Shaina wanted to fight. My sister went to the hospital, then afterward to jail
for grand theft auto, since she was only 15 my aunt Kenya was able to bail her
out so she only stayed there a few hours for processing, but it took all night
to get released. I was sad I hadn’t seen my big sister in a whole 24 hours. By
the time she got out the next day, I had already been moved to the west side of
Chicago with my aunt Kenya, yes they put me out for what my sister did. My aunt
went and got my sister and we stayed with her a while.
When my sister finally got to me, I
was so happy that I started to cry because I hadn’t seen her since the accident
and now I knew she was ok. At this point, I was half way through my 8th
grade year when I transferred to McNair. It was cool, but these kids were way
different, they were mean. I wasn’t use to it but I had to adjust. Once I fully
adjusted and made friends my sister caused mischief with my aunt and she put us
out. We weren’t so upset she did though we didn’t really like the area anyway. So
we moved in my great aunt Bernadine’s sister, my great aunt Murilene. At this
point in my life I only have a few months left of 8th grade I
transferred back to Dirksen Middle School in Calumet City because that’s where
we moved to when we left my aunt Kenya’s house out west, but by the time
graduation had approached I wasn’t ready because I had learned three different
curriculums, so I was behind a bit.
We stayed with my great aunt though
it wasn’t until I was ready to be on my own that I left from with her. The
process had greatly impacted my life though, because after all that I was never
able to catch back up in school. I was always behind the rest of my peers that
hints to the fact that today I am preparing myself for the GED. It held me back
from school for a while I didn’t want to go back ever once I was through but I
have to do what I have to do to be a better me today, and I can’t let my past
determine my future I see better, and I will be better.
The lesson I learned is to follow
the path for me. No matter how much I love my sister I can’t be willing to
waste drop what’s important to me to always run behind her. I have also learned
to speak up, if I see something is going to have a terrible ending I don’t wait
around for it to happen. Since all of this happened I follow a new motto. If
ever anyone asks me to do anything I’m uncomfortable with I ask myself first “would
they do it for me?”
