2023 Awardee – Lyllian Robertson – HWRA – Manilla HS

Recovery Over the Years

At the beginning of my life I was born into a family that did drugs. My biological parents have or had an addiction to drugs and sexual stuff. I do not know exactly what they did but I have heard some things. Living in a house that was not the cleanest and having five brothers. I had to take care or watch over my four younger brothers. My older brother and I had to make sure they were good and that they had everything that they needed. Most of the time our bio-dad was at work all day while our bio-mom was asleep. This made it hard to feed everyone and learn how to cook without any instructions. There are a couple of experiences that I recall about some nights. For example, the power went out in the whole town but my bio-mom thought people were trying to break into our house. She gave everyone weapons to “defend” themselves if anything happened. After a couple of hours she let us go to bed. She was always on something and there were similar events like that. Early in the morning, one of my younger brothers was really sick. She thought that he was poisoned. In a panic she escorted us to the car to go see our grandma because she used to be a nurse. After grandma checked him out she said he was fine but mom did not believe her. We took grandma’s car and drove. I do not know exactly where we were at when she stopped driving. The only reason that she stopped was because the two back tires popped and gas was leaking. After that, we were in foster care for a couple of months. Our dad picked us up after a while. After a while our mom was able to come home and we stayed together for a couple of months. One day the police came to our house to take our mom and dad away. The cops waited until our grandma came to take us to her house. We lived with her for a year-ish until our aunt and uncle took us in. This had to happen because our grandma could not take care of us any longer because we were so wild and full of energy that we were too much for her. Our aunt and uncle took part of us first then the other part of the family. My bio-parents go out of jail after a while. Eventually they adopted us and we have been with them for five years now.

Through everything that happened at the old house my brothers and I have been doing therapy. My parents have also helped me with that and everything that troubles me. My depression has bothered me as well but I have been taking pills and my mom has gone through depression. She knows what I’m going through and we can talk to each other. Being outside in the sun also helps because just being in the sun and the fresh air can clear my head. Doing any creative work like drawing or painting helps clean my head and express my emotions. As I have been with my aunt and uncle for five years I have not had any contact with my bio-parents. Which has been good because I think that if I did have contact that I would be stressed out.

Having helped with everything that had happened I have been doing better than in the past. I am focused on my school work and actually doing it on time. I work hard to do my best on everything even if it’s not school work. Because of living in a messy house, I keep everything clean and organized as best as I can.

Besides everything I have gone through I was able to participate in sports and have achieved medals in Track and Field and Cross Country. I have also participated in plays that our school has done: Beauty and the Beast, Hello, Dolly, Lion King, and, High School Musical. I have made high honor rules certificates and student of the year for the Character Award, JR. High overall improvement, Top JR. High Business Student, JR. High Special Recognition Award: Art, JR. History Student, Animal Science Category, Division 4, 2nd place, High School Top Biology Student, High School Art Student, High School US History 2 student of the year, High School Math 3 Student of the Year, and Skill Certificate-Career and Technical Education.