"My Life as a Child" by Andrew L

            As I grew up in West Covina I witnessed many bad things. One night as I was hanging out with my dad outside he heard gunshots. He picked me up and ran inside. That next morning my dad found out some lady got shot and died. My dad knew at that time we lived in a bad part of Covina. Every night my dad laid there waiting for someone to try to hurt my family. My dad did everything he could for my family. As I grew up on that street one day we heard gunshots and called 911 I didn’t pay attention until the end when I saw around 50 people on the curve arrested. I learned that family is everything and stupid things land you in jail. My life in that house was amazing we rode bikes to the park had picnics. Everyone would get on whatever they are riding and we would go to eat, park, and sometimes we would even ride to the mall. One day we went to the skate park and my brother went to drop in and he fell and broke his arm and leg. They rushed him to the hospital and he came home with two casts. Another thing we would do to keep us entertained we would climb on the roof. One day we went on the roof without telling my parents when they weren’t home and I actually fell off and scrapped my shin. Other things we would do are ride my jeep around the house and the backyard. We knew everyone on the block after those people got arrested from that one pink house. Over the summer I would ride my jeep to these peoples house and play with their grandchildren. My older brothers and sister would go across the street to hang out with the older kids and they would go swimming in their pool and bar-b-q. The little boy and I were about 4 years old and we would go back and forth to each other’s houses and would ride around each other’s yard and play with our little toys. 

One day I found out my friend moved away with his parents and that was my only friend on the block, then I found out I was having a little brother and I was so happy. As years went on I would hang out with older people like my brothers and sister, then my little brother was old enough to play with me. He took over all my toys but I would still fight with him because I would tell him they were my toys and tease him. One time I made him cry and he got so mad threw his toy at me and told. My mom took all my toys away and put me on timeout for 10 minutes. A couple weeks later my parents started arguing and they got divorced and we moved with my grandma. Me and my little brother had to wake up at 3 o’clock every morning for my mom to drop us off at my brothers babysitter. One morning we were on our way to the babysitters and my brother was talking to my mom and she turned around and looked at him and pulled the e brake. The whole car turned around and we were facing oncoming traffic. That morning I thought my life was over.