I grew up in a houshold of constant anger & an uncomfortable environment. It was like walking on eggshells at the age of five. I can remember my adopted dad always working & being home with my adopted mom all of the time. I'm not sure when she did a complete 180 & turned into a very mean and upright human being, but when that happened everything changed. She protrayed herself to be such a Susie Homemaker but behind closed doors all she did was yell and belittle us. Us meaning my adopted brother Shawn. If things weren't done to her liking we were smacked around or told how stupid we were. In the summers I remember being locked out at 830 in the morning and having to phen for ourselves. I did the best I could to make friends but I didn't know how to ride a bike so it was hard to keep up and ended up alone a lot if the times. Shawn and I were pretty close at this time in my life mostly because she was so mean to us we had noone else to lean on. He was always in trouble but he had no problem saying what was on his mind. We went to the same schools but of course he was three years older so I didn't get to hang out with him much at school either. I do remember him having it rough at school and having to wait for him because he always got beat up. I probably should have tried harder to stick up for him but I never did. I really want to write this story and get it out there. I may not have lived a horrific life but to be adopted by a woman that had a terrible life herself and was never shown how to love repeated the cycle not just once but twice. She may have done the best she could but to get to where I'm at now in my life I had to look back at how much she impacted my life.