It's taken all of my first thirty years of life to fully recover from what I was born into and this is why I've decided to share my story. My feelings are that no situation could have been worse than mine as it relates to the progression toward greatness that it has become. I was born the first of seven children to a mentally unstable woman who would begin leaving us alone as soon as we were able to walk. My siblings and I escaped death on countless occasions including suffocation, drownings, and fires. I watched babies be beat and tortured by the numerous men allowed into our lives. My journey also includes but is not limited to sexual abuse, physical abuse, surviving without running water, eating from garbage cans, and even life with a man whose brother would later murder his family. It was a childhood of absolute pain and what I refer to as Hell but I grew through it and was able to escape the numerous obstacles. It has not been easy in the least but I am here today for the motivation to others in similar situations. It is my experience that the fight of breaking chains, no matter what the situation, is a genuine struggle. It seems that people have a tendency to give up before they can fully break away. The vicious cycle of poverty, abuse, and lack of education is usually founded in our ancestry. It's the chains that bind our cognitive growth and later contribute to the nationwide struggle with low socioeconomic status. Grandparents were not taught any better so they were unable to teach their offspring better, and so on goes the pattern. I've had to completely separate myself from everyone I knew in childhood. It was not easy. I was determined to never even talk the same as they did. I focused so heavily on every minute detail concerning communication that I nearly made myself mute at one point in my life. Pain is real, as are life's struggles, but we all have the innate ability to overcome it.