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Allison Van Winkle

Mr. Neuberger

English Comp 101-129

10 February 2011

Narrative Essay

The Situation that Changed my Life

When I was a junior in high school, my whole life from what I knew it as was completely

changed forever. On April 2003, five days before my birthday to be exact, I am sitting in our

driveway in my boyfriend’s car, waiting for my 3 sisters, Brittany, Ruthie and Briane, and my

brother, Michael to get off the bus from school. My mom and her boyfriend are in our house

getting stuff ready to head to Springfield for my great-grandpa’s funeral. When the school bus

arrives, only two of my siblings get off the bus, Brittany and Michael. My two youngest sisters,

Ruthie and Briane, are nowhere to be found. My mom frantically starts asking Brittany and

Michael where Ruthie and Briane are. They tell her they don’t know where Ruthie and Briane

are, and they didn’t even see them after school. They did not get on the bus. My mom asks them

why they didn’t ask anyone about them when they realized Ruthie and Briane were not on the

bus, and they both tell her that they assumed my mom picked them up from school early or

something.

My mom decides to call the school, but before she is able to a Webster County sheriff

and another car with a middle-aged woman in it, pulls into the driveway. I watch from my

boyfriend’s car as the two walk up to my mom and begin to tell her what is going on and why

they are there. I watch as my mom starts crying and shaking her head saying “No, it can’t be

true I want to talk to my daughters.” I get out of the vehicle and walk over to find out what is
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going on. It is then that I find out the news that forever changes my life. My mom’s boyfriend is

being accused of sexually abusing my two youngest sisters, and the sheriff is there to arrest my

mom’s boyfriend. The social worker is there to explain to my mom what is going on and to take

Brittany, Michael and I with her and place us in a foster home, which is where Ruthie and Briane

have been taken until further investigation of the case can be done. I am in complete shock. I am

just standing there, unable to move, until all of a sudden the realization of what is going on hits

me. I flip out and start yelling and crying asking ”Why?” Here it is five days before my 17th

birthday and a little less than two months before summer vacation, and some stranger is telling

me that I have to up and leave my life as I have known it and go live with some complete

strangers until the investigation is over. I laugh at the social worker and tell her she is crazy if

she thinks I am leaving anywhere with her. I have nothing to do with this situation, it does not

involve me, and I have no idea about any of it. Me acting this way cause Brittany and Michael to

start acting the same way. The social worker then tells us that if we don’t cooperate, she will be

forced to call for back-up. I tell her to call who she has to and that she better call the whole army

because I wasn’t going anywhere with anyone, and it was going to take that to get me even close

to going anywhere. After about twenty minutes the social worker finally agrees to let Brittany,

Michael and I stay with my mom as long as we stay away from our house until further notice just

in case my mom’s boyfriend gets bailed out of jail. We all agree, get some clothes and head to

Springfield to my great-grandpa’s funeral.

When we arrive at the funeral and everyone starts asking us where Ruthie and Briane

are, and my mom explains to them what happened and what is going on. My grandma then

offers for Michael, Brittany and I to stay with her. We all decide this is a good idea and agree.

On Monday, the children’s services lady calls and says that my mom’s boyfriend got bailed out
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over the weekend, and says they feel it would be better for us to be placed somewhere else where

it would be harder for him to get in to contact with us. We tell them what my grandma offered,

and she says that is fine as long as we go by their rules and we agree. So the next day we have to

go and unenroll from Niangua schools and enroll and start in Willard schools, which is the

school district my grandma lives in. This ends up being a big adjustment for me considering I

just transferred from a school that there was about 25 people in my class to a school where there

is now about 250 to 300. I hate it. Here it is about two months before the end of my junior year

and I am having to up and leave all my friends back home and start all over somewhere new. I

start skipping school, and my grades drop from all A’s to low C’s.

After the end of the school year though, I realize that I still have to do everything I am

required to do, so I find a job and start planning my senior year of high school and set a goal to

just do the best I can and to have fun while I am doing it. It is this situation that makes me

realize that everything in life is not set in stone and can change in an instant, and although as

devastating as the situation is as I look back, I realize that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed and that

everything happens for the reason and you can either let it destroy you and everything about you

or you can take the good with the bad and make the most out it.