They released me at seventeen but was I really free?

Free to go where I wanted? Free to really be me?

I was just a number, a nobody on their list

things would go real easy they said

as long as I didn’t resist.

Kelly Kasper 

Many people would believe that the worst moment in my life was when I was taken away from my mother but it wasn’t. I was a statistic in the system for seven years out of twelve growing up. Twelve long years from the moment I was taken from mom until I graduated High School. The other five years was spent with the abusive family that was allowed to adopt myself and my two sisters. I have long since come to terms with the destruction of my family unit but I still remain somewhat damaged.  Damaged from the system that raised me for far too long. They tell you the system is in place to help troubled youth find their way but it doesn’t work for everyone. I was left with unrealistic expectations of the people and world around me. I was expected to be like everyone else with no real thoughts of my own. A slave to the system and a prisoner of its deception. So even though I continued through life as an adult my inner child remained trapped within the system.