Born in 1979, the tail end of a time labeled Generation X and adopted at birth, I was raised by parents who only had children because they existed within an era where it was appropriate to have kids at a certain age despite the lack of knowledge surrounding how to raise them properly. I was treated like everything I did was wrong and restricted by constant boundaries that impaired the ability to be able to find my own self.
Like many in this generation, I was the youngest sibling and grew up in the shadows of an older brother or sister and hassled for not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, therefore creating a lost generation in amongst thriving individuals.
Leaving home at the age of fourteen with the door shut permanently behind me, I found myself living a large portion of my teenage years on the streets and in Government homes. Where many of these lost causes under Social Welfare care wound up suicidal, dead or in jail, a rare few broke free to carry on the continuous struggle for survival living off hope for better days to come.
While living on the streets of nowhere a code of ethics was cultivated, formulating a self made law of what was right and wrong during attempts to simply make it through lonely nights into another cold day.
Simple basics such as food was taken without remorse from local supermarkets and the thumb for hitchhiking was the ultimate form of travel to get from one town to another.
Educated by learning everything the hard way forced me unknowingly into a lifestyle of association with the criminal underworld for they were the only people ever around who would show any attention but I never stepped over the line winding up in jail for crimes against humanity, because self made morals would not allow myself to do so.
Many unlearned mistakes for the majority of my years occurred until I learned the value of self image from a highly reputable individual who was well liked and respected in society and who took the time to give me half a chance in life to try and set out and put things right by realising it’s the people you choose to have around you that shows you who you really are as a person.
Today I am settled down with a loving family and a full time independent writer of not just this novel, but also a series of kids books designed to help children overcome their anxieties of sometimes scary events as they grow up through the stages of development in their lives.
Sadly, he passed away before ever getting the chance to see what I became and as I looked up to him so highly, this book was written directly in his honour as my only way to say thank you and allow his memory to live on forever without it ever fading, just like the lessons in life he taught me.