My mother was born on April 11, 1970, the last of ten children; his mother was in and out of his life throughout his adolescence, as he struggled with drug addiction and prostitution. My mother lost both parents at the age of fifteen and had me when she was sixteen. She married at sixteen, as my father was much older than her, the opposite was required; he would go to prison. The relationship I want to talk about in this essay is the one between my mother and me. My mother struggled to raise me, we grew up together, as she too was just a child when she had me, and definitely had no representation of what a parent should be. We've had many ups and downs over the course of my life, but I'd say overall things are good now. I learned from her and I'm happy that things are much better. My mother's teenage years were problematic to say the least. She grew up as one of ten children and didn't receive much. When she was five years old, she was taken away from her family due to neglect and placed in foster care. Her father later managed to take her back along with some, but not all, of her other siblings. The emotional hell that was his life would have given anyone a reason to be a horrible person. My mother has always been a fighter to do the right thing. He decided early in his life that doing the right thing always pays off. My mother always told me to learn from the mistakes of others and especially from my own so as not to waste time in life, having to hurt unnecessarily. I would say that my mother is a practical kind of person, which was difficult at times because instead of having many emotions like most other single mothers I knew, she was more detached from emotions than most. She never gave Lee... half the paper... contact her to tell her that I shouldn't go my whole life without my mother. I agreed with him and contacted her and called her. My mother apologized for pushing me away and eventually agreed that David wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought. We all went to dinner and things have been completely different since then. My mother and I are so different now than before. I think we both realize that despite what we each believe is right to do in our lives, we respect each other's wishes and beliefs. She and I will never be the same since that day I was no longer home, but I believe we are in a much better place. Now that I have definitely grown up, I see the reasons behind the choices he made for me as I was growing up. I have learned that ruling your life with fear can cause drastic life-changing events, but if you can recognize your wrong doings, you can have a happy life.