The history of my life starts off at where I was born in the city of San Francisco on June 4th 1986.  From there, me, my mother and father moved to some low income housing in Marin City. My mom and dad were never married and were also into heavy drugs. Eventually my dad disappeared from the picture and my mom and I were constantly moving around to different towns in Marin County. About when I was four years old, I started to develop my drawing talent making stories and comics and random things I pulled from my imagination. The earliest school I remember attending was Creek Side and Gallinas elementary school and then Davidson Middle.

When I was growing up, I thought nothing of my mother leaving me.  She said, “I was a very adaptive child that didn’t ask any questions until later on“. But even though I never asked where she was, I still wondered. “My art and music kept me company and made me independent,” she said. I knew bits and pieces of the story when my mom went to rehab, but now she tells it all from her side. Her story is a lot different from mine because I was young and don’t remember much. But it all started when my mother started getting into heavy drugs like cocaine, Crystal Meth and alcohol. Eventually child protective services were called and I was taken to a place in Novato to live. My mom had to attend rehab and A.A. meetings so she could see me again and avoid jail. From there I was put in a large adoption house in Novato with the Mason family. I was there for two years and she would visit every once and a while. Because of my mom’s drug problems, I was put in and out of different homes for kids with the same situation. When she was able to get her life together I moved back in with her and I met my new brother. When it was time for me to attend high school the first place I landed was Terra Linda. I went for about three years ignoring all homework and never studying. I would always ditch class to go hang out with my friends and as a result of all this was held back. My family moved around a lot so I went to a few other high schools all over Marin.

In chronological order, the next high schools I went to were Tamalpais H.S., San Rafael H.S., and Drake H.S. After Drake, I just dropped out and never finished. When I turned twenty I was not getting along with my family so I moved out and took my car to go make it on my own. I ended up being homeless for about three years living in my car or at friend’s houses just getting by. I eventually moved to San Francisco living there for about a year and a half working lame jobs, and attending the city’s community college with no direction in where I was going with my life. I attempted many times to get my GED but always failed by a few points in the math section of the test. Still into my bad academic habits, I had a hard time studying. I met many kinds of people and learned things in my own way but ended up dropping out of that school too. I started getting into making music and performing around different spots in the Bay Area. I studied the bass guitar drums and spoken word music.

After about a year and a half in the City, I moved back to Marin hungry and homesick. I started couch surfing at my buddy’s houses. Then when I hit my twenty third birthday I had some kind of strange awakening to get my life on track. One day I saw the flyer for the AHO Youth Connect as I was passing by the Marin Youth Center in San Rafael.  The flyer said I could get housing, employment, legal help, haircuts, clothing, food, scholarships and more all at this location. For the first time in years I felt there was hope and I could change the life I had been living.  I was now motivated and one of the first youth to show up at the Connect.  I was ready and excited to see what AHO could offer.