I’m honestly just a kid going through things just like anybody else. Life growing up wasn’t anything extravagant. My mom was a drug addict who constantly put me in the most messed up environments. Most of my childhood I watched her get high and get beat in relationships being to young to do anything. For a good amount of time I was homeless living in hotels with my mom going into my freshman year not knowing what turn life was going to take for me. Eventually, my mother ended up committing suicide September 26th, 2018, and my life started crumbling beneath me only being 14 at the time.

After falling into drug abusive patterns myself two years after my moms suicide I tried hopping onto a train while it was still moving resulting in the amputation of my right leg. Yeah, I haven’t made the most thrilling decisions in my life, but the most I can do is move on and be strong.

I wish everything that’s happened in my life could fit in a couple paragraphs on this page, but realistically it just can’t. I don’t regret any of the things I’ve done. It’s allowed me the knowledge of life and at 19 I’m as sharp as I can be nowadays.

- Skylar Cruz