Hey everybody. Ruby here. So I’ve taken another step toward success. I’m fully enrolled in adult education! SafeHope also gifted me a laptop for my 18 months of sobriety, and my starting school! Which I am beyond thankful for! I’ve never actually owned my own laptop 😂 so this is a nice little new thing for me.
I’m so thankful to be given the opportunity to finish my high school. School has always been a struggle for me, not intellectually, but more so committing to it, sitting in a classroom, and not just goofing off. A bit of backstory on my schooling; ever since I was young, I struggled in school, I remember being put into the special education class in first grade because I was being bullied and would retaliate physically. Kids would push and push me until I got aggressive, and then I would be the one in trouble. I also have ADHD, ADD, and ODD ( oppositional defiant disorder), so it was very hard for me to focus, I would get bored very easily, and I had so much energy that sitting at a desk was sometimes impossible. I did well with grades though.
I got in more trouble before high school ( as detailed in one of my early posts), but when high school hit, I stopped caring. The second day of school I blew off all my classes to go get high. I would go with my friends to stand outside the liquor store to wait for someone to go in and get us liquor. I would go to parties, and I was using and selling drugs during school. I actually got escorted out of school in handcuffs on Halloween ( there was a school dance, and my mom said I couldn’t go but I snuck out and went so she reported me missing). Before the second semester even started I had been expelled and sent to an alternative school.
At this point, I had been in CAS, and back and forth with my mom. At 15 I got my first job, so that impacted my school, my thought process was, why go somewhere they’re not paying me to be at, when I can get paid to work? At 17 I was working and going to school, and my mom had a psychotic break, which led to me having to become her caretaker, so I couldn’t focus on school.
I tried to go back repeatedly but couldn’t ever focus on it, and when I moved out at 21 I was working full time, overtime because I had to support myself as well as my partner at the time. Eventually, he got a job, so I switched up my hours and tried to go back to school, but he was opposed to it because he couldn’t keep tabs on me. So I gave up. Then I just resigned to the fact that I’d never finish high school, and that I’d just work minimum wage to put a roof over my head and support my substance use.
Fast forward to all the stuff that happened between then and now. Being given an opportunity for something that I took for granted before is such a blessing. And I am going to be able to work at my own pace, with learn at home. My first course is a University Level English creative writing course, and I’m very excited to be starting it.
Anyways that’s it for today, I hope everyone is keeping well, and enjoying the longer days now the sun is out for longer. Until next time.
Ruby
Keep going Ruby. You deserve it. Hard word pays off
So excited for you as you begin this new chapter! Congratulations!
Please know that there are people praying for your success!