Ages 12-14

A Story by DJ Adamczyk

A section of a biography I hope to write one day.

In my early teens is where I would bet my anger began. Winter of 8th grade I had moved out of my house due to foreclosure. We lived in a newly built 2 story house with attached garage and a basement. It was a beautiful house and the neighborhood (which was still very new as well) was lined with equally sized houses.

Transitioning into a much smaller, poorer house/neighborhood can be tough on a 13 year old. Not to mention that this is what probably caused the divorce of my parents; so growing into my teenage self I had only known arguing and anger. My parents would always be arguing it seemed. Everything was a big deal when it concerned one another. It’s like they couldn’t stand to be around each other anymore.

None of my friends never knew the actual truth because I don’t feel comfortable opening up about myself to people. No one ever knew how my family was falling apart right before my eyes. Now that I think about it, neither did I. I don’t “open up” to people. Something about telling another person very close and personal facts about myself makes me feel weak and vulnerable. If I ever do find myself opening up to someone, I’ll get angry with myself and stop. I won’t open up even if I want to, hence the reason I decided to write this.

I saw my mom and dad physically fight for the first time right in front of me. I was doing homework, which was probably math because I remember it being so frustrating, and my dad’s patience was growing thin. Something caused him to be very angry with me until my mom stepped in and smacked him in the head. To be honest, after that I can’t remember what happened but the altercation didn’t last long for they had stopped before any fists were thrown.

I was caught stealing. Now in the past I have stole things before, but nothing terrible ever. I was a kid who lived by a party store but never had money. I stole candy, and bottles of sodapop was my extremity. One day however I went up to the local K-Mart with Jimmy and Jason to buy a new tire for Jimmy’s bike. When we found the tires, we almost found ourselves short of cash. I was debating to steal the tire because we didn’t have enough money, but found a cheap enough tire. As we were headed to the register, Jimmy decided he wanted to stop at the electronics aisle real quickly. I unwillingly gave in. After looking around for a minute, I found a University of Michigan phone case I supposedly had to have. We took a lap around the store so I could dispose of the tagging on the phone case.

After paying for the tire I began to leave the store until a man stopped me and confronted me for my stealing. He was a secret shopper who had apparently been following us since we walked in. He walked me to the back of the store holding onto me in a way that showed he was the officer escorting the criminal. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. We sat in his office and he began asking me questions. We had a conversation as I waited for my mom to pick me up. Luckily, he ended up not pressing charges.

When I got home I remember both my parents talking to me. It wasn’t what I expected. They were more concerned on why I did it and they were more disappointed then mad. If I remember correctly, I virtually had no punishment for the theft of shoplifting. They were more worried it seemed.