My parents waited anxiously for my birth as I was their first child. They loved me like no other and dotted over me, but our poverty...

When looking back at those days, I marvel at how far I have come. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was desperation. Maybe I will never find out..

I remember the fear in my mother’s eyes...I remember the pounding of my heart. It was the first night my father came home drunk...

But what I wish I didn’t remember— what I wish I forgot so completely—was my father’s drinking. My father’s hands as they beat me...

With many, many patients coming his way, my father was highly esteemed—a venerated figure like a god, in fact...

Those early years were rough on my mother as she was battling demons in the early stages of her alcoholism and drug addiction...

It often feels like an unbearable privilege to write and make a simple living from taking all those wonderful and horrible patterns...

We would grow up, and things from our childhood would start making sense. But some things are always going to be beyond our comprehension...

I was born in 1982, grew up in and around Raleigh, North Carolina, and was raised by a mother who lived and breathed drugs...

I shouldn’t have taken all those pills, I didn’t want to die. I needed to get to a phone to call 911, but it was so hard to move...

They say that daughters are a blessing, but that was not my reality. You see...for years, I blamed myself for my mother’s death...

My parents taught us to work hard, help our neighbors and be respectful of others. My mum worked in an office and...

Together, they built a family. I had an unusual childhood as my siblings and I were the only mixed-race children in the town...

If you didn’t know, The Troubles refer to a nasty civil dispute that spanned over 30 years between the British and Irish...

...I always said the same thing—I wanted to go to the zoo. Once there, I would head straight for the tiger enclosure...

I mean things started out pretty normal I guess, but at the age of three, my mom committed suicide due to drugs and alcohol...

Coming from a conservative town, no one cared to learn why I didn’t have a dad. They just judged my siblings and me for it...

We were not rich, but we lived a happy and comfortable life. I saw the world through their eyes and everything seemed wonderfully...

I have lived a life of colors, starting with mostly dark shades until I finally reached the bright hues I’m in today...

My childhood was a tangled mess of emotions that I still have a difficult time unraveling. There were some good memories...