Stand Tall

Living Life

86 days left.

Everyday Isabella though this. She could no longer stand the mocking and the sneers that the other kids tortured her with.

She was the kid that had the illegal immigrants as parents. No one knew until ICE came and stole them away from her. Before that everyone loved Isabella, thought she had the coolest parents, but that all changed..

Now she is living in a group home, but in 86 days she will be 18 and graduating high school. Isabella will no longer be trapped with hate surrounding her from all sides, she will be able to leave go where she wants and remake herself.. At least, that's what she dreamed of. Now that her parents were gone she had no clue what would happen, if college was still in the plan or not.

She had no money and no other family to help her. In order for her to survive once she is kicked out of the group home she would have to find a job to herself and to maintain wherever she is placed by the state. Sometimes it felt as if the weight of the whole world was on her shoulders.

To get away from the stress Isabella had a safe haven.. This place was the roof of the school. The school's gardening club had all of their plants up there so it was an array of different colors and plants. Then there was an amazing view that looked out to the ocean.

So the day where the teasing, the mocking, the disdain got too much for Isabella, she went to her safe haven. But she did one thing different than what she usually did when she went to the roof. She sat on the railing that was a protective barrier and just stared into the blue-green waves of the ocean.

"Life is full of ups and downs, but we can only call it living if we make the most out of the downs," spoken in a gravelly voice.

Isabella turned around to see that it was Ben Lively, the all american boy.

"What is that suppose to mean? Shouldn't we focus more on the ups, than on the downs?" she nastily asked him, "as if you even know what hardship is?"

"It means that we wouldn't know the joy of life if we never experienced something sad or hard. I know what hardship is as my father was killed in a robbery, so between my mom and I we provide for my 4 little siblings."

After hearing that I felt ashamed of myself as I let myself become the person I never wanted to become.

"So life is full of ups and downs, but we can only call it living if we make the most out of the downs. Did I get that right?"

"Yes, repeat that to yourself when things get tough and stand tall," he said with smile that spoke of promises and happiness.