Grades 9/10 1st Amelia Peng, “The Story of My Life”

The Story of My Life

If I looked back to where I am and who I’ve become as a person today, I would say I’m proud of myself and everything that I’ve overcome. I spend most of my life living with my dad, my sister, and my dad’s girlfriend Lauren in Prince Edward Island, it’s a very small island that’s famous for the red soil and good potatoes. It’s a place where if you go to Home Depot to pick up a hockey stick or Walmart for groceries, you’ll probably see your grade seven science teacher or that guy you had a crush on in grade six. If you’re into all that, living in a small town where everyone knows everyone, good for you. But it’s never something for me and where I wanted to be.

My relationship with my parents for my whole life has been good until my mom left my dad, we had a healthy relationship but just like other families, there were ups and downs, arguments, I mean who doesn’t? It could be about not turning off the lights outside the garage or just any small disagreement, but we also have big ones that don’t just “go away” in a couple of days, ones that stick with you for a long time. Don’t get me wrong though, I love my parents, I’m grateful for everything they’ve done for me and my sister since we were little girls, I think the main reason why sometimes we lash out at each other is that no one in our family wants to talk about their feelings because we don’t want others to think that we are vulnerable or soft, we put on this tuff face, and that’s how little things pile up more and more like a water balloon, eventually it will overflow and break, that’s when an argument explodes.

My sister and I have gone through quite a lot as a kid, from my parents leaving each other, my mom’s new boyfriend hitting up our phone because my mom wouldn’t pick up, and my dad’s girlfriend being rude to my dad. I’ve always wanted to leave home, just to get away from all this screaming and get all the toxicity in my life, and once I found out that I had the chance to move to Ontario and stay with my aunt for school, I grabbed that opportunity and didn’t let it go. I bond with my mom’s side of the family so much more than my dad’s. If I can use two colours to describe each side of my family, my mom’s side will be red and yellow, and my dad’s side will be blue and grey. My decision of my leaving home was hard for my dad to swallow, before I left for Ontario, the vibes in my house were just off, there would just be constantly yelling and screaming of two sides, but eventually, my dad finally agreed to me leaving home and that

After moving to Ontario to stay with my aunt and uncle, the house that I stayed in felt so fun and peaceful, nobody was screaming at each other, and everyone was happy, for a while I just thought, “Damn, I wish things were like this back home.” I never wanted to go back to PEI ever again, that’s what I’ve told myself, the food is so much better in Toronto, and you won’t run into anyone you know every time you went to the mall or the store, I’ve never felt this alive and happy in my life.

When school started and I moved to Lakefield, I met so many amazing people and made unbreakable bonds and ones that I’ll never forget. That was also soon I realized how much-unsolved trauma went hidden in my life and things that happened to me that someone my age should never go through. One day, the school called my dad about reapplying to school for grade 11, (the phone call was never intended for my dad to know, he didn’t even receive any emails from the school because we didn’t want to trigger him about me leaving home.) My mom and dad had another huge argument about me coming to Ontario and going to Lakefield all over again. I remember sitting in our common room in Uplands at night crying to my aunt on the other side of the phone and her telling me that it was going to be okay and I shouldn’t need to worry about the argument between my mom and dad because it’s none of my business, I think they feel the need to always bring me into their problems because I’m the oldest child in the family and their eyes, they see me as their little girl but me maturing and leaving home also made them feel I’m responsible for many things. Then I remember Emma walking in on me and asking if there’s anything that she can do, I said I’ll go to her room after taking the phone call, and I did.

She talked to me and told me what she was going through too with her dad and her family, I felt so much better knowing there’s someone that I can relate and bond to, later she told me that I should talk to an adult about what I’m feeling and to seek guidance, so the next day she texted Ms.Brown, (which was my English teacher at the time,) and we talked. I told her everything about what I was going through and how things were back home, she gave me methods for dealing with my parents and made me feel so much better. I walked out of her office that afternoon with everything heavy gone on my chest. It felt like I finally dropped a heavy bag on my shoulder that I’ve been carrying my whole life.

I then decided that I can’t run away from my problems, and the best way of dealing with all this is to just face it and overcome it. I’m back in PEI right now for a while, and my goal this visit back is to finish what i “ran away” from last time to seek closure and leave with nothing to worry about behind, and with the support of my friends I have back in Ontario and the support from my teachers and family, I feel like I can finally put all the guilt and pressure that build up to me to this day to an end, Afterall, I feel like this is what I need to be a better and stronger person in the future too.

Amelia Peng—1st Place, 9/10 Non-Fiction