Autobiography

I was born at St. Joe's hospital to humble beginnings. An older brother and a mom and dad. I was raised throughout my childhood in Dexter on a street infested with children of the worst kind. We had two big trees out front and I dreamt of climbing on the roof and jumping into their enveloping branches. Surely they would catch me. I recently drove by and to my dismay the trees had died and all that was left were ugly stumps like scars reminding me of what had been. Years after I was born we moved into a farm house to build a house in Ann Arbor. The farm house marked possibly the worst summer of my life. I had grown up in the yards of my neighbors and the farm house was on a road where the cars would run you over without ever a thought of stopping. The heat was deadly, so that summer we wasted away, sweating buckets with a tiny fan and tv reruns of I Love Lucy for companionship. In September of my 11th year we poured the concrete basement of my new house as planes hit the World Trade Center in New York. Tragedies had riddled my life in the past year and this was an unexpected new form of fear. We moved into my new house in December of that same year just three days before Christmas. During the following year i would completely lose my faith in God. I had friends that were going astray left and right and I was trying to follow something or someone ever so desparately. I thought that in so many ways, God had failed me, but it was truly I who had failed God. For three years after this point I struggled with popularity issues, eating disorders, depression and the want to feel loved. I went through cycles of hating God and not believing that He existed. During this time I had entered high school. I started a great job babysitting for a little girl that I often think of as my own. She had just been born weeks before I started babysitting for her. During those years I learned more than I ever thought I would. Through the grace of God I found a book that brought me back to him. "Eucharistic Miracles" was the name of it and I remember that as I read I grew deeper and deeper in love with the one who loved me most. I finally met people that would give me a steady place to stand in a world that moved from underneath me. Before long I would graduate highschool and then move on to greater things. Now I feel like I've better found my niche in the world. Hugs are my speciality. Every once in awhile I drive by my old houses and think about what used to be, and I still babysit that little girl, only now she has a sister.