Journal

Dear Journal,

Today was just a regular day in East St. Louis. I got up to the smell of sewage running down the back of the house. I had to get up and get ready for the day. I walked to the kitchen to see if we had any food today. Though it was just like every morning, we did not have any food. So I figured that I would have to go to school today. Today was Friday and I had missed four days of school. I think that I should go at least one day of school. My mother is not around so she would not know if I went to school. My father left me at the age of two at least I think. Though even if my mother and father were around I don’t think that they would care if I would go to school or not. So, around eight I left our house to go to school. I was only an hour late to school, but my first class does not even have a teacher so I was not even counted late. My first class with a teacher started at ten. This was basic math, it was very hard. Then I have Science and Home Ec. Lunch is the best time of the day for me. This is the only meal that I will get the whole day. We get the meal for free since my mother cannot afford to give me money for the food. So, the rest of the school day I had English and Social Studies. The rest of my day just started after I got out of school. I don’t think that going to school is important at all to me. Why do I need to be able to read and write? I don’t need to be able to learn any of these skills to be able to survive in the world. Literacy is just a word, why do I need to know anything, if I will never succeed in life.

For the rest of the day I hung out with friends. We just walk around East St. Louis all day. As we walked around there are people handing out money because the plants were over the states limits. So we then walked around, but it is hard to stay safe in parts of East St. Louis. There are gangs everywhere and if you are wearing the wrong colors they will kill you. I’ve had two or three friends killed by gang members.

My day ends at about one in the morning when I get home. I get ready for bed. I got in bed then my mother stumble into the house. She was very drunk. I had to get out of bed and help her out. She had been out all day drinking. She had quit her job at the liquor store and now she would just go out every day and get drunk. I could not even get food but she could spend all the money on alcohol. She just does not care at all for her family. I wish she could see how hard it was for me.