College Essay 2010

I wrote this while I was applying to college back in 2010. I was accepted to two schools, but I chose to stay home to take care of my father and younger sister.

“I’m sick of this. I’ll come back when I want to.” That’s what it said, the note that was left on the table for all of us to see. I remember that Saturday. I remember it like it was yesterday. The night before, I had a friend sleep over, and the next morning when we woke up, it wasn’t home to me anymore. It was like we were somewhere else. I walked out of my room to go to the bathroom and do my daily morning routine. Since my mother wasn’t on the couch like she usually was, I figured she was still in bed. After walking back into my bedroom, my grandmother walked in. she handed me a small, yellow piece of paper that would not only prove me wrong; it would change the rest of my life.On that brisk, winter morning, I had discovered my family would suffer a great loss. My mother was gone. She had left before; it had been for a week. She came back that time. This time, I would wake up every day hoping to see her sitting on the couch in the morning. That was something I never saw again. The Monday after she left, I woke up and got ready to go to school. It wasn’t easy. No one knew what was going on behind the closed doors of my home.One month went by, then two. We heard nothing from my mother. On my birthday, I heard from her for the first time. I had received a text message from her. She asked if my younger sister and I wanted to do something with her for our birthdays. I asked my sister, and she said “No, she’s mean.” I told her no, we didn’t want to do something with her, but I was sorry. I just didn’t want to see her walk back into my life, and then moments later, walk away again. She was upset. We started talking, and I said “Honestly, I don’t think you’re coming back.” And she responded with an easy “No, I’m not. Sorry.” It seemed to me she just brushed it off, as though she didn’t care. Rather than having the sweet sixteen I had been planning for a year, my mother told me she would not be returning home. Not only did she leave us though, shortly after she stole forty-five-hundred dollars from my father’s bank account. This left my father with next to nothing except the decision between buying groceries and paying the bills, which no one should ever have to make. The whole time she had been gone, she had been living with some other guy and his two children. I had sent her a long e-mail four months after she left. I’m not sure if he read her e-mail, or she showed it to him, but he had the nerve to e-mail me. He said he didn’t know she was married, and he was sorry. There was even one night my mother came to get some of her things. My little sister walked into my bedroom. She looked at me and said “I’m scared.” I told her to come sit with me, and I wrapped us up in my blanket. We waited there until she left, then I sent her off to get ready for bed.Since Friday, January twenty-fifth of the year two-thousand-nine, I have become the woman of the house. I’ve been a mother to my younger sister. I’ve been the one my dad goes to about his problems. I’ve been a good student, and a good friend. I’ve been everything to my family; I have been the foundation holding us up. I have had to become overnight what should have taken me years to accomplish. I have truly found the meaning of the saying “Family comes first.” I put my life on hold to be a mother to my sister. I wanted to be what she needed in her life. For her birthday last year, I made her a cake and dinner of her choice, just as my mother would do every year for us.It’s been six-hundred-fifty-four days since she left, and although I miss her, I feel like I’m on top of the world. I’ve had breaking points and bad days. I’ve cried and I’ve been upset. However, I’ve also been strong for myself and my family. I’ve been all that anyone would want for a daughter, a mother, a friend. I’ve been me.

Author's Note

True story. Exactly.