I am not an A+ student. But, I am not a straight F student, either. I do not drive a Mercedes Benz and I don’t spend hundreds of dollars shopping with my parent’s credit cards. I am fortunate enough to go home and know there will be food for dinner or that my brother will make it home that night. Some might look at me as average. But I beg to differ.
I am a 17-year-old girl who was blessed with a good education and a loving family. What I have in life, however, was not given to me. Though I haven’t had to go through any life-altering tragedies, I have gone and made it through struggles that made me who I am today.
Alcoholism has been in my family since before I was born. It has consumed my brother’s life for the past eight years. My nine-year-old self holds memories of my brother threatening to commit suicide and my mother’s sobs from behind her bedroom door.

These scars I can never erase. These scars make me stronger; these scars make me who I am.
I vowed at nine to make my parent’s proud. I vowed to go on to college and use my mother’s tears and brother’s threats as incentives for writing. These hardships have made my family stronger and have opened my eyes to the not so perfect world I have ahead of me.
I am more than average. I am passionate and strong and know that life is more than a picket fence. Going through these family strains has made me who I am today. I am not average; I am me.