Well, I guess the only way to do this is to start from the beginning. My mom and dad fought all the time. So, that sort of started all of the hardships. My mom and dad divorced, and we moved out; and now my mom married another guy. I didn’t really have anyone there for me except for my brother and two sisters. Well, my older brother moved out, and he always fights with my mom, so I never really get to see him. Recently, my older sister left for Boot Camp for the U.S. Army. My little sister and I aren’t as close as I was with my older siblings though, so I’m pretty much alone. I try my hardest to just try and ignore everything bad that goes on, though. I come to school, put on a smile, and just go with it. A funny part of that smile is what made me find a girlfriend.

Her name is Silvia. One day in gym, I smiled at her, which isn’t very odd because I’m friendly and smile at everyone, but she must have liked it because the smile she sent back was huge. Then we started emailing and talking every day. After I asked her for her number, we started texting each other. She ended up asking me to prom, which honestly was a huge shock for me because she is easily one of the most amazing people I know. Well, I said yes, and so after that we started hanging out more; and we really started liking each other. We hung out every weekend. We had some fun times during the summer. Most of all I’ll never forget the first time we ever went out. She, two of our friends, and I went on a date. Silvia had a softball game, which it was really cold, but I watched it and waited for her; then we picked up her friends. We went out to eat at Applebee’s. It was the first time I actually had fun in quite a while.

Ever since that first time hanging out, I always knew there was something special about her, and I was right about that. The difficult part was she was a foreign exchanged student, so we knew she wouldn’t be here in the U.S. forever. We became so attached to each other, though. Mom kept telling me, “Luke, don’t get too attached. She will be gone before you know it.” Of course, I didn’t listen to her, and last July Silvia flew back to Italy. Mom was right. I was really attached to her, and that was really a hard loss to go through. Silvia was the closest person to me, and then just like that she was gone. Now I’m alone again, and sometimes all of this is so much to handle, but I know that I have to keep my head held high and just keep pushing through it. I can’t just roll over and let it control my life. I just have to keep my fake smile on, so nobody worries about me.