Each of us have our story, made up of so many stories.  Each story has a beginning and some have an end.  Many more just stopped, no end, no completion, just lots of unanswered questions.  You know those questions, “I wonder if I would have done_______ instead?”  “What if I had never met him/her?”  “Should I have _____?”  After spending a few hours with Tina, I had many of the same questions for her.  What an incredible story I heard.  I am so excited about sharing it with you.

Tina was the only child of her father.  After her parents’ divorce, Tina went to live with her dad and paternal grandmother in California, who was extremely important to her.  Tina did not share anything too unusual about her life as a child in California.  Many of us have come from divorced parents, many of us have been raised in a single parent household and for some of us a grandparent has been a major influence on our life.  So what was different for Tina?

From the outside looking in, Tina seemed to have a fairly normal life.  She always had lots of friends and was a natural leader.  Tina played varsity softball in high school, completed her Associate Degree in Computer Science and at one time had her own landscaping business.  So had did she ever find herself homeless?  Let’s take a closer look….

As a young girl, alcohol and drugs were pretty common place.  At the age of 11 Tina had her first joint. Her grandmother drank alcohol on a regular basis.  With permissive guardians, Tina was pretty much able to do what she wanted, go where she liked and hang out with kids she wanted to.  I guess for Tina, that combination began to pave the way to a long, hard road.  Always resourceful and a hard worker, Tina had income to buy whatever she wanted.  (Sometimes our greatest asset become our greatest liability.)  Tina, being bright, and very competent, was able to keep herself in all the drugs she needed.  But what caused the drug use to increase, to go beyond just ‘getting high’ at 11 to Meth at 16 to getting and staying high everyday at 23?

It is here life gets even more complicate for Tina.  Sporadic visits with her mom proved to be OK for a little while and then she would head back to California, to a lifestyle that was becoming more and more familiar.  Tina even joined the Navy for a period of time.  Being drawn to hard work with a purpose, Tina got to bootcamp but did not finish.  A positive drug test would eventually get Tina a one-way ticket home to California.  Could things get any worse?  Always…

But I guess you’ll have to grab another cup of coffee and check in tomorrow.