Michelle Gutierrez Gutierrez 1
Mrs. Harris That One Person
8/10/11
I like to think everyone has a person in their life that they can relate to. A person who understands exactly what you’re feeling or going through without having to explain a word. Whether it’s a relative, friend or even a parent. Well, that person would have to be my older brother, Danny. To this day I can remember our ridiculous games of Hot Lava Monster or our crazy adventures “exploring” the neighborhood. My brother, for as long as I can remember, was my role model, the person I looked up to the most. Of course there were moments of disappointment, hurt feelings, or pointless fights. But all in all, he was my person, best friend, even.
As time passed from our foolish childhood games, my brother became a teenager and I was still pretty young. Things began to change, as they’re supposed to, but in this case, for the worse. My brother started high school and very quickly got lost in the wrong crowd. He was always an extremely social kid; however it didn’t do him too good when he initiated befriending the wrong types of people. Danny began slowly changing, first dressing differently, developing an attitude, however it then escalated to doing drugs and leaving for days at a time. It was incessant arguing and yelling. I still didn’t fully interpret what was going on but I was beginning to catch on. I remember times where he would take off without a word until my mom would realize about an hour or two later. We would get in the car and try calling him, his friends, anyone. More than once we filed a Missing Person report. My parents would get so stressed out, worried out of their minds, just where my brother could be and what could he be doing. I Gutierrez 2 remember thinking, “what did I do? Why is he running away from us?” of course I didn’t understand anything then. All I did know was that this was that this wasn’t the same person I remembered. It wasn’t my friend anymore, I had lost him.
So, this went on for a while, probably a year or two, eventually he lost himself as a person and his drug use intensified, it got to the point where we couldn’t even have a conversation without him storming off or losing control. My parents were helpless, constantly trying to reason with him until they came to the conclusion that his environment at school and with his friends were suffocating, if he were to make a change for the good, it couldn’t be here, this place was infecting him. My brother even realized it himself and came to my parents seeking help, telling them he didn’t want to go on like this any longer but he couldn’t do it on his own. That’s when my parents started doing research, looking for out of state boarding schools. And they found one. All the way out in Missouri, in the middle of absolutely nowhere stands Agape Christian Boarding School for Troubled Teen Boys. It wasn’t easy but somehow, with much heart ache and sorrow, my brother and parents flew out there and told my brother that was where he’d spend the next year of his life. Weekly phone calls, daily letters, and every 3 months a weekend visit. We were all devastated but it was what had to be done. This was my parents helping him. So this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you that everything worked out and it was a happy ending. Truthfully, it was. For a little while. It’s crazy what an impact friends and social encounters have on teenagers. For the most part, Danny straightened himself out. He recognized that enough was enough and that