My name is summer, all my life all I wanted was to fit in, now I see that standing out might not be such a bad thing. I was born on the 25th March 1991. We were the typical a suburban family – my dad David was a teacher, my mom Joan also a teacher. I am the eldest of three and the black sheep of the family, my sister jean, 5th in her grade a self-confessed over-achiever and then there is, my brother John, has an unrivaled imagination –
At six months I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, at that point I think all the dreams my father had for me just died but, mine didn’t. One day, I was sitting in my chair – a small brown chair – and watching TV and I will never forget what happened next, my father ran into the room fuming over something my mother said, he preceded to lift up the chair I was sitting on, with the intent of hitting my mother with it – in the end, he thought better of it and put me down gently but, in those few moments when he was holding me in the air, I vowed that from that moment on I would do everything within power to protect my mother –
At the age of five I was sent to live with my aunt Carol – she had the biggest smile and an even bigger heart – and uncle Robert – on the outside he looked a little scary and mean but if you got know him a little you would realize that he was just a big ol’ teddy bear – because there weren’t any special schools in the town where we used to live.
A year later, I moved to the hostel – where I had to learn a new language, eat the most disgust foods – but I also learnt a lot while living in hostel – I learnt how to dress myself, I learnt how do my laundry and perhaps the most thing I learnt is that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. I used to go home every two weeks for the weekend and every Monday morning I would waking up crying, begging my parents not to take me back to that horrible place but, many tears later I would get dressed and get into the car for the five hour drive back to school.
Four years later, my brother John was born; my uncle drove me back home to see my brother. A year after my brother my brother was born – I thought all my dreams had came true but it turned out to be a nightmare – My mom had found a job in the big city, my mother, my brother , my sister and I moved to the big city, my dad only found a job a year later
Six months into my first year at the new school I felt a sharp-pain in my lower-back and three weeks I was diagnosed with scoliosis and I had surgery three weeks later. The doctor put me on bed-rest for a year and a year later, I went back to school for a week – I realized that I couldn’t sit in a chair for a very long time – My parents decided to home- School me.
As my education situation got better, things at home got worse – my parents hired a women to take care of my while they were at work , her name was Megan and well the only thing she did was watch TV and eat our food –

You know the saying be careful what you wish for well it’s true all that time I lived in boarding school all I wanted was come home but, when I got home I realized it wasn’t what I expected to be. My father always took the opportunity to show me that I wasn’t good enough to be seen with him –
One day we were watching a movie and my mom and were fighting and he told us ever since we came into his life, his life has been and misery and that all of us were a burden to him – when he said that it felt like he stabbed in the heart and twisted it three times – There would a huge argument whenever my parents wanted to go somewhere to visit because my mother wanted us to go with them and my father wanted to stay at home and eventually they would leave us – my sister and I – at home – which I wouldn’t mind if they didn’t do it every time they went out –
The final straw was one evening when we were coming back from visiting my aunt and my dad wanted to stop by to see his friend – Nick’s son would had undergone a miner operation on his noise – and my dad didn’t want be to go in because there were other people in the house and so my sister and I stayed in the car. We finally got back home and I went straight in to my room and lied on my bed – I must have spent two hours just crying about my father rejection of me – and when I had finally calmed down I realized that I was searching for something I already had – I realized that my father may never fully accept me for who I am and that would be ok –
It doesn’t really matter what others thing of you, it’s what you thing of yourself that really counts