Everything about the states was exciting at first (hotdogs, hamburgers, cornbread, mac & cheese, etc) but then as with every new toy, you get used to it and get over it. I had to be put in the 8th grade even though I was meant to be in the 9th grade, because the school season was very far ahead and they didn't think I could keep up. So that meant that I was a year older than everyone in my class, which was new to me because I was used to being the youngest one back home. I got bumped up a lot because I was smart so I was in school with with people 4 years older than me when I was back in Africa.
In any case, 8th grade was a breeze...it was cool to see the way classrooms were set up. The lockers, homeroom, students with different color skin and hair, everything was exciting (even riding the bus) and easy. The only subject I had trouble with was algebra, but it didn't take long to grasp it and I did very well. The students were very curious, asking if we lived in trees and ran wild with lions, hahaha. They were pretty stupid, but I let them know that we were westernized just like Americans.
Life at home was ok....we lived in a nice, big 5-bedroom house in the suburbs. The subdivision was kept very nicely. We had chores assigned to us but for some reason, I got most of it. I always did my chores though and made good grades but my parents were still too strict! I even had a bed time, which was fine with me if they just let me hang out with friends. One time, a friend from school invited me to go out to the movies with her and some other friends. Her mom was going to chapperone us; she talked to my step-dad and he still said no...I was so pissed and sad at the same time. My period started that year (I was 14) and I had the worst cramps ever! I even had to get taken to the emergency room from school one time. Name brands were definitely a must have in school but my mother didn't believe in that because she thought it was wasteful (
however not for my younger siblings when they started wanting those things;
I'm just going to assume she learned from her mistakes with me); they wouldn't even pay to get my hair done, so it was kind of annoying going to school but it was ok. As long as I was excelling, I felt great about myself. I swear though, everything I wanted, they denied me. I needed braces, BADLY!!! but they didn't want to spend the money. They wanted me to do my chores, be respectful, make good grades, go to church, etc. But when I wanted something as little as decent clothes and hanging out with my friends, they denied me. This is a tension that was building up and will finally explode.
I got into soccer reluctantly, but it turned out to be a great sport that I loved. I was also part of the dance team, but my parents made me quit because they thought it would lead to me sleeping with the football team, lol. Even as I moved on to high school they were still too strict. They wouldn't let me girlfriends sleep over, or vice versa, let alone let me date.
After a while my step siblings (my step dad's kids with his ex-wife) came to live with us. We also had a family friend living with us. At one point, there were a lot of people in the house and I was left with all the chores with no reward for it. I got along with my step-sisters but they didn't get along with my mother and after a while, it drifted us apart. My brother ended up sleeping with one of my step sisters, which was a HUGE taboo. There was definitely a lot of drama in that house.
The summer of the year I turned 17, my mother had the fabulous idea to send us to London to visit my grandmother and two aunts. It was a fun trip, we visited trafalgar square, went to Jehovah's witness church with my grandmother and aunt and got to see a lot of beautiful things in London. One of my aunt was the cool one and she told me to use what's between my legs to get what I wanted from men. I kind of understood the concept but had no clue just how on point she was. We also met up with a cousin that lived there, along with some guy I chatted with on yahoo chatrooms who turned out to be lame. I even learned to travel around London myself. It was the first time I ever saw my grandmother (from my dad's side) and she was just awesome. My trip to London was definitely a lot of fun ;-). Unfortunately, my grandmother passed a few months after we left; she could have saved her life with a blood transfusion (or something like that) but because she was a jehovah's witness, her religion won't let her. It was almost like she stayed alive just to see us before she passed. I didn't really feel like I had lost someone though because I didn't know her for that long. I thought it was sad that she died but that was about it.
I decided to lose my virginity after 16 and now that I was 17, it was time. I decided to lose my virginity once I returned to the states. I had him picked; his name was Garfield. I snuck him into our basement and I lost my virginity right at my house with out my parents or anyone knowing. It was actually in my brother's room. He had moved into the basement and I had my room all to myself upstairs, but I couldn't sneak out though, lol. After I lost my virginity, I slept with the captain of our football team, and a couple of other guys I thought were hot without my parents knowing. It's funny, the one thing they were so scared of me doing, I did.
I even had to lie one time to my parents so I could hang out with my girlfriends. One time, I told them I had a soccer game when I didn't and I got to hang out and do normal things with my friends. We didn't even do much but I had fun. My mother was on to me though because she was waiting for me when I got home and confronted me. It turned into a screaming contest and I basically told them the I wouldn't have sneak around and lie to them, if they would let me hang out with friends!!! Of course, they didn't hear a word I said; typical.
I started shop lifting with a friend of mine. My parents wouldn't give me money for the basics so I decided to shoplift to get what I wanted. They won't let me get a job either so basically I was fucked either way. I had a part-time job, making crap money as a referee but it didn't buy much. They didn't want me to work AND they didn't give me money either! I know kids usually complain about their parents and seem to be over dramatizing everything but I wasn't asking for the world here! They let me get a job at our church as a baby sitter in our church but I didn't care for it. I even yelled at a kid once cause she was bouncing off the walls and I didn't last long for that. Hey, I learned that from home, lol. I finally got caught shop lifting at walmart and I got taken to jail. My parents had no idea where I was. Finally the guard convinced me to call home. My mother was screaming and sighing, and going on and on with the drama; this was why I didn't want to call home in the first place. Apparently, my parents had called the cops like they gave a shit about me, lol. But because they didn't let me have a social life, they didn't know who my friends were, to give the cops any leads on where I could be. I found out the next day that they were going to let me go free anyways provided that I come back to court on my court date; so I didn't really need to call my parents. I could have just lied and told them that I was at a friends house, but everything happens for a reason. When I left jail the next day, my stepdad was waiting for me; I was so pissed. He took me home, dropped me off and left. I packed up some of my things and called my friend (the one that shoplifted with me at walmart) and she picked me up and took me home but her mother didn't like me running away from home so she called me parents and made me go back, ugh! Things definitely took a turn from them on and everything would be different....
