A Testimony

Life can be confusing, terrifying, and at the same time, amazing and sometimes, one just needs a little inspiration to keep going. I hope my story, that I'm about to share, does just that.

I was born in May of 2002 in the Columbus, the capitol of Ohio, which is where I lived for 13 1/2 years of my life. My family consists of my parents, Kendall and Sharon, my eldest sister, Carlie, my older brother, Justus, and then myself.

At the time that I was born, my parents' marriage was struggling. My father had done somethings he shouldn't have, so the possibility of divorce was high. When the tension between them was the highest, my mother got pregnant with me. I am literally the glue that kept my parents together. They couldn't stand to see me grow up with a split family. Despite the fact that they stayed married, their marriage life was terrible.

For two years it remained that way. At the end of the two years, my parents went down to Georgia to repair their marriage and to heal my father from the restless leg that he had. My siblings and I stayed with family friends, the Shonks, we nicknamed them that, while they were on that trip. This retreat they were on, it saved my parent's marriage, freed my father from the restless leg, and it did something just as big, even greater.

I can't explain what went through my parent's minds, but they called Carolyn Shonk and told her to feed me popcorn. That may seem ordinary and normal to you, but that was insanely stupid with me. I was born with 9 food allergies. I can't name all of them, but a few are, corn, milk, strawberries, cantaloupe, eggs, bananas and clams. So as you can see, feeding me popcorn was completely stupid, but they told Caroline to do it, so she did. I ate popcorn that night, and nothing happened. My body didn't react to the corn. Just as my parent's marriage was mended, my father was freed from his restless leg, I was healed from my 9 food allergies. When my parents came back from Georgia, I had my first ice cream. I devoured my bowl and finished off my older brother's bowl. I couldn't get enough of it.

Even when I was 2, God was looking out for me. In later years though, it didn't seem like it. Growing up, my siblings and I fought all the time. Most of the memories that I have from my early years are of fights and arguments. I'm sad to admit, but I had anger issues as a child. I have a memory of being so mad at my brother, I threw sharp pencils, pens and even scissors at him. Mind you, he was and always has been bigger than me. The only thing I have and ever had was my mouth. I screamed and yelled. I made a ruckus over petty things. I'm not proud of it, but I sometimes still have trouble controlling my anger and my mouth.

When I was 3, our dog Timber, died. I honestly try not to think about it much, but my only memory of Timber is when my mother took a picture of me sitting behind the dying dog. Timber had cancer and my parents couldn't stand to see her in pain. As horrific as this may sound, but they took Timber up to my Grandpa's country house, put her in a hole, and ended her misery with a single shot. After Timber died, my family was sad for a long time.

The next happy thing that I remember, was when we got our current dog, Dorea, a year after Timber died. Honestly, my family loves Dorea, but she is such a weird and annoying dog. It was either that same year, or the following, but I started pre-school around when I was 4-5. From an early age I could read. I remember sitting on Mrs. Thomas' lap and reading The Hungry Caterpillar to my class. I skipped my second year of pre-school because of reading to my class. For kindergarten the next year, my mother home-schooled me online.

Then 1st grade happened. Mrs. Foley was an amazing teacher and I loved every second of it. I had many friends, and was what would be popular now. That's the only time I've been popular in my life.

Second Grade comes and I'm still at the same school. But before I know it, on the bus ride home, I'm doing stuff with another kid I shouldn't do. I don't know how it came about, but this boy and I played with each other's privates. We were doing gay stuff and didn't realize it. Because we were both innocent, we had fun. But there was always a nagging feeling inside of me. I felt like I should tell somebody about it, so I did. One night, my brother and I were in our beds. Mind you, we share a room, so we talked to each other a lot before we went asleep. That night, I told Justus about my innocent adventures. He immediately got out of bed and brought our parents into the room. I had to tell them about all of it.