Stress at a Young Age?

Have you ever seen anyone that was so stressed out that they changed, including yourself? As I remember as being a young girl and helping my mom watch my younger brothers, I have seen it a lot in my family and friends to identify it. To see anyone you love go through harsh times is not fun to see nor tempting to bring out of the blue, mostly being at the age of four. Looking back, I had been affected and now look at me, my emotions take control of me more than it should.

Growing up with a father until I was three years old and then leaving with a single mother after I was three and a half years old was hard as a kid. I was confused of what was going on and tried to understand what was happening. My mother changed a lot to being emotional from what my dad had done to stressing out of how or where we are going to live and what our future will be like. Her features of her body changed from gaining or losing weight time to time because of work and worrying about me and my younger brother Michael. Her facial features seemed to make her age more and seemed effortless for her to be herself. She had sacrificed her happiness, for in return, she stressed out a lot to get to where we are today.

Anger Overcomes Me

In fourth grade, my mom met a guy, which from first sight of seeing him with my mom, I disliked him and his habits that he shown us. He used to bring his siblings over to my house that I used to live at the time and drink. I know, a child in elementary worrying about that type of adult stuff. My mom would not care about how I felt because I was just a child, but she wanted to be selfish for once for happiness, but lied that he was just a "friend." Later, which was in a year, she had a baby for him and by that time we had moved to a new location. Being eight years old and still taking care of my brother Michael and adding another brother was very mood swinging.

Honestly, after my mom had met this guy, she eased up and shared responsibilities with him like buying groceries, doing family activities, and getting things we needed. I was happy for my mom and gave him a chance, which was the wrong thing to do and let my guard down. I was the one that got the short end of the stick! Even though those experiences taught me to be who I am today, I grew up too fast for my age. After school everyday, I had to come home to take care of the guy's baby from changing diapers, giving him baths, doing dishes that were his bottles, and feeding him. My mom came home everyday from work and guess what? He took credit for everything that I did! This was all stressing and discouraging for me as a kid because I wanted to feel proud that I did all that and adding that, I had my other brother who was one grade lower than me that I had to watch in and out of school because he had a learning disability.

Tough Years Add Drag Features

Fast forwarding to high school, there are parents, school counselors, teachers, and even your friends say, "These are going to be the best four years of your life." They were not, depending on who your are. My freshman and sophomore year had drama, homework like crazy, rumors that ruined your life if you made a little mistake, and boy troubles. My junior and senior year were worse because I had a baby, which is another story, but exactly the same with my freshman and sophomore year but times two. I had to think about college, do my homework which included college essays, and hoping you know what you are going to do after you graduate high school, which I did successfully. Those that say "best years of your life" were the biggest stressful, head-aching, heart wrenching, and mental breakdowns I had ever had adding to still watching and taking care of my brothers and a baby girl.

From being a child and seeing from what happens to the closest person to you, meaning my mom, and growing up going through that yourself, it is a lot to put on someone's chest even though it does not include them. You and even others can put a lot on a child if you go through changes. I had some changes throughout my life like mental and physical changes such as thoughts of suicide, staying away from others, my health was up and down the scale, and sometimes memory loss. These are real types of symptoms and can lead to depression and effortless movement. Would you put a child through these type of scenarios? Having a good start in life will lead you to having a great life.