Smile Through The Pain || A True Story

This Is Her Story, And Hers Only.

Hi, my name's Natalie. Natalie Grace, and here's my story, the story that I keep adding to every day. The story that will keep on going until I meet the time that I can finally put all this behind me, and finally be without my burdens and sorrows. Let's start from the beginning. The day of my birth. The day I was blessed...or cursed...to enter the world that we call Earth.
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I was born on the month and day of February 22. I won't tell you the year, that's confidential. It's funny really, why I'm telling you all this. Is it because I need to vent out? To lift the burden of my secrets off my shoulders? I have no idea, but let's get back to the story. I was born as a healthy baby girl. No health problems, thankfully. I was born into a state in the United States of America, called Tennessee. My mother and father, who I will not tell the names of, decided to name me Natalie Grace. It was the only name that they could both agree on. I had been born on accident when my mom was only 18 years old, but she still loved me, which I will always be in debt to her for. She could of given me up, pretended that nothing had happened. But no, she kept me as her own, raising me to be the person that I am today. My mother and father would rarely get along, and it eventually led to my father even hurting her. When I was a baby, my Dad was selling illegal drugs outside of a local market. He was caught by the police, and sent to jail for 8 years. I lived with my mother, and would visit my dad maybe once or twice a year. Sometimes I wouldn't even see him for a year or two. My mom divorced him short after, disappointed and broken. My grandparents, mother and I all moved to Smyrna, Georgia when I was around 3. I had a German Shepard, named Maggie, but I was too little to remember much about her. My mom entered a college there called "Kennesaw State University", which led to my grandparents watching me most of the time. Life was going great, but everything changed when my mom met another man, who's name I will not tell. When they met, and eventually began dating, we moved in to his home back in Tennessee. Soon they had my half-brother. My name and my two best friend's names are the only ones I will reveal. It is my choice to tell you all this, and you have no business to know about their personal information. If my parents ever find this book, then they will most likely hit me, yell, and possibly take away my device for good. That's why it is extremely hard for me to post this book, not mentioning the emotion that I'm pouring into my words.,I am sorry, but this information needs to be heard. After a while my mother and the man broke up over the phone. The man went as far as to take my baby brother, not answering the phone or telling anyone where they were. My grandfather was the one who had to find him and get my brother back. We moved back with my grandparents in Georgia, living there for about 7 more years. After a while my mother had found out that her old high school sweetheart, who had just come back from the army, was back and in Tennessee. They eventually started dating, and we traveled 3 hours every weekend to go see him. After a while we moved into his home with him, and the two got married. My father had just come back from jail, and was living with a woman and her two children, one 13 and the other 8. I visited him every other weekend, which I will do to this day. I never even got to attend my mother and the man's wedding, but I guess that that's not that bad of a thing. The house was messy and small, and reeked of beer and smoke. He had convinced my mother to start smoking, and she still does to this day. When I plead her to stop, and tell her that I will help her, she calls me 'judgmental' and tells me not to get in her way. We would stay late at night at their friend's houses. I can almost never sleep at anyone else but my own's house, and we would stay sometimes to 12:00 am. The school I went to there was amazing though, and the people there caused me to keep pulling forward, even when I wanted to give up on this world. I met a two girls there, Haylie and Natalie, who goes by the name Lyn. They brightened up my life, and I am proud to call them my best friends. We help each other when the going gets tough. We share each other's sorrow, joy, and pain. So when my mother and the man divorced, and I had to change schools once again, it ruined my life more then it ever had. We still Skype each other, and see each other anytime possible. We hold onto each other with everything we have, and I swear to God I will never let them go, no matter what it comes to. My mom, brother and I moved into a house that was drafty and filled with bugs. Remember the man that's the father to my half-brother...the one that practically kidnapped my brother? He somehow made his way back to my mom, and started dating. This broke me completely, and even caused me to consider suicide, but I could never bring myself to finish myself, thinking of Haylie and Lyn. I had tried to drown myself and stop my breathing, but had always stopped after a couple seconds. I wanted to move with my father, and a part of me still does, but she wouldn't let me. She went on about how I need to stop getting in the way of her life, and how I'm just a child, and need to leave these things to the grown ups. The problem with that, is that she basically told me to let the "adults" ruin my life. Which they did. I know this seems childish of me, but the adults in this situation are what caused my life to go soaring downhill. At the new school that I had started, I met 4 people I won't say the names of, but they helped, and still help, me to smile. I would always tell myself to smile through the pain, and always do my best to help others smile as well. I know that my life will most likely never go down the path that I wish it could, so I try to help other's paths to do so. It's become my hobby to make friends, show them kindness, and turn their lives around, just how Lyn and Haylie have done to me. We are moving soon, into a house where the man can live with us, and are expecting to move soon. What makes this story even worse though, is the fact that I'm only 11 years old. All these life-changing things have all happened in only 11 years. Most adults won't even begin to imagine what I'm going through. The only thing that I can really say, is that if your parents aren't divorced, or you haven't thought of suicide like I have, then God bless you. Enjoy your life, and make sure to love your friends family with all your heart. They're really the only people that can make you, you. And if you have gone through these things, then please. Smile through the pain. Help others smile. Make the world a better place. This world needs more help then it will ever get. So go out there, tell your family you love them, and please...Smile.