I was in a park when I was 12.
I was with my friend who was 11. All my friends were playing basketball
and somebody told us
that we better not be there when they get back.
They came back to the park and started shooting.
They shot my friend in his neck
and his back
and I took my shirt off and put it over his neck,
tried to help him stay there like tried to help them stay with me.
He just kept saying like, "I'm tired. Let me go to sleep.
I'm tired. Let me go to sleep." He just kept saying like, "I'm tired. Let me go to sleep.
[music] He just kept saying like, "I'm tired. Let me go to sleep.
[music]
I was having nightmares about it and I kept dreaming about it
and telling myself it was my fault because I didn't want to leave the park.
I started popping Xanax and stuff because
I didn't like going outside like that, but
I wasn't going to hide in the house my whole life.
It just suppressed everything. It was just like,
"You can't touch me." I felt I had superpowers.
From when I was 13 years old, after that, I was just
in and out of jail, in and out of jail.
I was getting kicked out of high schools.
One time I came home at three o'clock in the morning,
my mom was trying to ask me like where I was and stuff like that
and I couldn't get no words out of my mouth.
I was trying to talk,
but I couldn't say nothing
and when I just woke up, she was at the bottom of my bed
and she was crying.
She said she didn't think I was going to wake up,
and that's when I'm like, "I got to stop taking them."
I didn't believe I could change my life.
It was just my mom believing the whole time.
In August, I'll be a year clean.
[music]
When I first got into the recovery high school,
it was just,
everybody cared.
I didn't never have to worry about fighting other males in there because
they just wanted to be your friend so bad.
It's boring
but I care about more stuff
and I got more ideas.
I will be thinking about what I want to go to school for,
I'm worrying about scholarships.
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