Erisad wrote:
wefunction wrote:
You got a point there! 16 is when the world opened up. I had my driver's license and moved out of my parents' house.
...I'm 21 and haven't achieved either of those things. I wish I could have been that successful at age 16. At age 16 I came home from school crying every day because I was picked on all the time and was adjusting to Adderall and anti-depressants.
I graduated at the end of my junior year, just after I turned 16. So I moved my boyfriend (22 years old) and myself out of our parents' homes and into an apartment. Both of us were working full-time. When I got my license, I bought my mother's old car so I already had a foot out the door before I officially moved. That boyfriend and I broke up when I was 18, and then I started hustling 9-ball at the local pool parlor when I was off-work, which helped me make my bills. Unfortunately, I got married in the autumn of that year and my independence was quickly buried in the mess of an abusive marriage. I didn't have any doctors, diagnoses, or prescription medications to help me. I had caffeine, alcohol, tobacco/nicotine, and a lot of young energy.
After I left my abusive husband, I was 22 or 23 years old and had been living on my own as an adult since 16, even if I had gone through some horrible crap with the marriage. It was really difficult to bounce back to my parents' house where my mother treated me like I was a teenager in need of her care, then being abusive when I didn't go along with it or when I tried to actually contribute to the household bills like adult children are supposed to do. I got out of there very, very quickly!
I don't do very well if I'm not standing on my own two feet.