Around the time when I had turned 12 years old, my parents had started to realize that I was not the sweet little angel that I used to be. My morning sessions with the com

munity swim team had turned into smoking cigarettes near the lake with some of the neighborhood kids. Since I lived in a close knit community, my absence from the swim team and my cigarette habit was soon reported to my parents and I learned how hard a spanking could really be. Since everyone in the neighborhood liked to gossip about others problems, my reputation of being one of the bad kids soon spread quickly. Parents began to tell their children not to hang out with me because I was a bad influence and that I would surely bring them down if they continued to be friends with me. Banished from hanging out with the children I had grown up with, the only people who would accept me were the ones that I had been getting into trouble with. Home life had turned into a nightmare; there was not a day that went by where I did not receive some sort of punishment. Even when I was not doing wrong I would be questioned concerning my whereabouts and the company I was keeping. This always would lead to an argument, which would then turn into an all night battle, and severe punishment to end the night. At school, I fell behind because my homework was never complete and I would sleep through my classes because I had been fighting with my parents all night long. The counselors at school were always calling me into their office to talk about my problems and help me set goals for myself. However, I did not see how my being absent from class three to four times a week was helping me move toward any of my scholastic goals.

My parents soon saw that their methods of correcting my problems were not working and that they needed help. After consulting with their friends, the house was soon filled with many books, videos, and tapes on how to deal with problem children. No one ever asked me about what was going on inside my head; they just decided that for me. Every week there was a new approach to subdue the rebellious person that I had turned into which led to more arguments and punishments causing me not to want to come home anymore. There were books about \"tough love\", which taught parents how to not show their love to their children in a way that would be beneficial to both parties. I have no clue to this day how that method was supposed to work, but it only made me feel outcast from my family. Although they were following all the rules from the books to help make me better, these new restrictions and guidelines were honestly driving us all crazy. A

Some common words found in the essay are:
Wrong Medicine, Kansas Oklahoma, people believe, swim team, run homes, smoking cigarettes,
Approximate Word count = 1664
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)