| This is the 564th story of Our Life Logs® | I was born and raised in Las Vegas in the 1960s as an only child. I had a wonderful childhood, but after getting pregnant young, I had to grow up fast. I soon found myself with a son, two daughters, and a man who I thought loved me to the ends of the earth. He controlled everything from where I went, who I was friends with, how I dressed, how often I saw my family, what I said, and even how our kids were raised. I never wanted to

That was it. I threw the dish I was holding right into the TV. And then another. Another. I threw every dish at that game until the sink was

For years, I had worked day and night for my sons to get the education they needed so that they could get away from their abusive father

As the baby of the family, I was the apple of everyone’s eye. My dad was a businessperson who worked at a supermarket...

In the year of my birth, 1952, our desolate Texas prairie lured only the wildcatter oil tycoons from the east coast and the hardworking...

Even now I’m still stunned when I think of the way it all went so fantastically to hell in front of my eyes...

I guess it all started when my father got his big break. During his rookie years, the law firm he was working for had been given...

We would grow up, and things from our childhood would start making sense. But some things are always going to be beyond our comprehension...

When one of them disappears, it threatens the whole system, and in my case, my entire being. I was forced to rebuild my life and myself...

Sometimes, your dream doesn’t line up with how your life is going, and other times, your dream can mold with you...

Traditionally, Indian families want boys, but as they already had a son, my parents welcomed my birth with all their heart...

They say that life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. In my life—in chasing my dreams, in fighting to provide...

Coming from a conservative town, no one cared to learn why I didn’t have a dad. They just judged my siblings and me for it...

Like every Indian parent, my father valued a well-rounded education and saw it as the key to a better life. He only expected the best...

A few months into my first year of college, my mother called my sister and me into her room. From the tone in her voice, anyone could...

Growing up in the 1980s, we spent our days running off with neighborhood friends, only returning home when the hum of the streetlights ...

I grew up in Taiwan, South Korea, and Hawaii, floating back and forth between the three places to see my father who was an influential...

Quitting often means you’ve failed at something, but for me, this was like turning over a new leaf. Now, quitting isn’t exactly a habit...

We’d break the rules, then run off and hide in the mango trees until the coast was clear–or so we thought. My mom would wait for us...

I had dreams, plans, and a strong will to achieve. When that all went out of the window, I was not left with despair. Instead, I was left...