First chapter

My name is Mandie, I am 21 and I want to share my lifes story with you. To start this off i'd first like to thank all the people in my life who have shown me support through good times, bad times, stupid decisions, best decisions, and decisions that theres really no answer for. I would never have made it this far without those people, I will never be able to say thank you enough. I would also like to start this off with saying kiss my ass to the ones who were close enough to support me but didn't. those people that choose not to support me decided that putting me down, or continuously making my life a living hell by bringing up the past and not letting it die, or trying to tell me where I should go, what I should do, who I should see, that's not support that's being my boss. Anyways I will get into detailed stories of accounts where it felt like i had the support of a bull under me and the support, or lack there of, of a bull with a broken leg, or two at times, lets just start with the basics first. Hope you enjoy.

CHAPTER ONE
somewhere to start


I could start this whole thing off by saying, I was just a little baby running down the airport terminal to meet my family in Pennsylvania for the first time and was extatic, but that would be a lie because I don't remember it, I was to young and i'm sure the only reason i would have been excited was to get off the plane. There is also a possibility I could start my lifes story with the happenings of a childhood birthday party, or events like breaking my ankle, but none of that seems good enough or really that important. No, they are small figments of my life, that yes I cherish, well not breaking my ankle, but not big enough to start with, and really not when I feel as though my life started in a new direction. I will however give a tad bit of background information to help ease into what I consider my life changing event. 
I lived in Pennsylvania from the age of, well not quite clear on that age so i'll go with a year old, until i was fifteen. I lived with my mom, Shannon, my dad, Richard, and my sister, Tara, for pretty much the biggest part of that time, the other people I stayed with, for a much shorter time frame, were my grandparents, and aunt. We moved a few times, I can only remember three but i'm sure there was more, and I hated every minute of it. Especially when all four of us had to share the house with not only my grandparents, but my aunt and her daughter and son on occasion, while waiting for our "modular home", aka a trailer on a basemnet, to be finsished. The size of the house wasnt the issue I had, it was everyone gettting along. Thank the lord I had my best friend there, who happened to be my aunts daughter, Sarah. Oh the stuff that happened under that roof and behind those doors would make a wonderful sequel to what im writing now, there was never a dull moment.
The last house we moved to was the trailer, which was in York New Salem and a straw field away from Richards parents. Which was always interesting, his father was a redneck like no other and found cheap ways of improvising and coming up with his own creations and tools, he was also an asshole. Richards mother was a hard worker until the day she had to retire, and a spitfire to say the least. I could call her an asshole too but over the years I have come to enjoy the attitude she has, along with the humor that I have come to find after so long searching for it. Anyways our home was nice for awhil, but eventually it went to crap. Not really sure how it all started, I just know that soon there was garbage all over the place, animals were enjoying using the bathroom indoors, and my parents seemed to be having a grand time taking pills and sleeping all the time. There were a couple of times the house was restored to look a hell of a lot better thanks to help from my aunt, but they never lasted. My parents expected Tara and I to keep up a whole house while they got pill happy behind their closed bedroom door.
For years I felt like I was on my own, having to care for not only myself but my sister and at times my parents. There were a few occasions that I thought my mother was dying because she took to many drugs, and there were times I thought my mom and dad would never go to sleep because of drugs. It was a never ending circle, until I turned fifteen. It was my birhtday, and I thought I was going to get to celebrate it with a great family friend, who we called nana Lisa, who I had stayed the night with. I woke up to her saying " come on, we have to go I got a call from Richards mom, your parents are both being taken to the hospital for drug overdose." Those words and that year pretty much changed everything. This is where my story starts, or at least it's that big event I was talking about that seemed like a good place to start. That moment was also the saddest yet happiest time of my life. I was watching my parents being drove away in a pill enduced trance, which tore my heart out, but I knew and ws told they were going to get help and not take pills like that again, so I was okay with it. Yet I still don't know if my life changed for the better or worse that year. My life likes to flip flop, well without anymore nonsense blabbing lets really get into this story.