The first day I realized that maturity and the blessing of wisdom is not obtained by aging and growing up I was only a decade old. It was 2011, during the concluding year of 4th grade,  when the thunderous words of “We’re moving” caused my world to collapse. We lived in the delightful neighborhood of Northglenn, CO where you knew your friendly neighbors and kids played out in the street safely till their parents gave a quick call to come home. My dear mother was a full time Medical Assistant at a hospital in a nearby town and my father was slowly beginning to tear away from mechanics like cells duplicating. He had recently started getting chummy with new friends who seemed sketchy had lots of money, but no official job. I dreaded the move so much, but it’s not like I could give my input on the situation and my opinion would be favored. We moved to Aurora and settled in an intimidating 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 car garage house on the rim of a cul de sac. As we carried boxes into the house I began to wondered why we didn’t have a nice house such as this one in the past. Months after adjusting to the new monster house, I began asking questions and my mom has always been open with me, she claimed that my father had got into a new business which was doing secret things and she didn’t have to work anymore. I was enrolled to the nearest elementary school and took the school bus there and back home everyday. Aurora was a city that I had never even heard of. I was oblivious to it. I knew that I was going to have to start over and make new friends, but I never expected it to be as hard as it was. All the kids in Northglenn were always so accepting of one another and at my new school the kids were, let’s just say, not so accepting. There was no dress code so I did not fret about clothes. I dressed myself the way I wanted to and I of course dressed unorthodox. Little did I know that unorthodox would make things difficult. Friends was something I was never concerned about because my mom has always said that “people should like you for who you are and they should be open to your interests and personality even if it’s indifferent” and Northglenn kids were just that. After about half of 5th grade my mother and I were struck with a chain of events that would spark and ignite my maturity. My dad left us to be with another mistress and gave us a burden of $12,000 monthly rent, other expenses, and my mother had no job. Mom being as wise as she is came up with a plan. The plan was not stable and in fact I detested the plan and sobbed to her. The plan was to break the lease, pack all our things put them in a storage unit, move to a shelter for homeless women and children while mom goes back to school, then try to get back on our feet once she found a job. Unfortunately, we had to go through with the s***y plan. The shelter was hell, and I was trapped in there for an eternity. I tried so hard to remind myself that everything was temporary, at the same time I had to constantly remind myself that this was my reality so I had to suck it up and move on. The rooms didn’t have locks on them and every night precisely at 10pm people would come to your room to make sure you were sleeping. The food was worse than prison food and I wanted to projectile vomit as soon as I saw it or smelt it. Everyone, EVERYONE had to complete their assigned chor and no kids were excluded from the laminated paper of dread and doom. About one week into my stay there one day when it was an allowed time to go outside and play with other kids, I sat on the jungle gym while every other kid seemed to be careless, I began to think in depth about the situation we were in and I had an epiphany. I knew that I had to be strong and be there for my mom, I couldn’t financially help her, but I can be a good kid and treat her respectfully because she might be taking damage from all this. Now would be the worst time to evolve into one of those children that make messes, have tantrums, make being a mother tiring. After a while of staying at the “merriment deprived inn” mom found a job and we moved into a s***y 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment where the landlord constantly hit on my mother and I utterly wanted to constantly swat his face. By this time I was a dozen years old and during the 2 prolonged years my tree of knowledge spurred my maturity. I learned to never take advantage of anyone because anything and everything can cause someone pain, always be thankful for what you have achieved and received, assist anyone you can to help liberate them from their struggles, keep a positive outlook on life because we are not guaranteed a tomorrow, narcissism is out of the picture, desolation is temporary, floundering leads to success, live life in the moment, and most importantly never ever lose your flames.