I was adopted as a young toddler with my baby sister. We were adopted by a pastor and his wife. She immediately took to my sister while my dad took to me. My mom would baby my sister and make me do a lot of the cleaning for my sister. When I would refuse, she would put me in a corner for 5+ hours and tell me I was a good for nothing kid. The earliest I remember being was 5. When I was seven, a close family member touched me inappropriately. When I told my mom she called me a liar and said never to tell my dad. And I didn’t. I wanted my mother’s approval so bad, I pushed myself to the limits in school. But it never mattered. I was always a second priority to her. When my parents divorced, I was forced to stay with my mom for four years, and I could not handle it. When I turned 14 I moved in with my dad and his new wife. She gave me the emotional crutch I needed that I never got from a mother figure. My mom started dating this man with a son.

 I recently had to start living with my mother again and her boyfriend. His son is now 11 and my mother treats him the same way she treated me and I hate it. I want to leave and I don’t know what to do. They hit on him and tell him he’s stupid and worthless. I cry every time I see it. My sister just laughs and says he gets what he deserves. It scares me every day. For me to survive back then, I stayed quiet, but he hates staying quiet and still. I try to tell him but it never works. I feel sorry for him and for myself not doing anything.

 What advice would you offer to encourage others?

 Keep your head up, push through life with strife if you have to. Be so mad at the life you want to prove that it can’t destroy you.

 – Austin, Survivor