My life was pretty messed up living at home with my mother and stepfather. My mother died in 2006 and I was living there still at 20 years old. I had been into partying a lot and never taking anything seriously. This really screwed me up because I was the one who found her dead, and I tried leaving my home state a few times but failed each time.

Her life insurance money was supposed to go towards things like my schooling, but my stepfather spent it on a new car, mail order bride, house, and even a baseball card store. She died suddenly of an OD so the only thing we had was what she said she wanted. I went to school, and my stepfather used some of the money to pay for it for a month or so, about $500 of the debt, and then told me to fuck off and gave me the bills.

Fast forward to about 2011, and I started working online for someone. I was able to start making money while I was still drinking and being miserable. Eventually I broke up with this crazy bitch I was with just to have a place to stay and found my current wife online through the work I do. The only condition to live with her was that I drop my life and come out to live in the state she's in.

I went from having nothing but drinking or pills to look forward to. Now we have a house together, and I have quit talking to most of the people from my past. My family abandoned me mostly because I was always drunk and they didn't want to deal with it so I do miss some of them but the problem with them is that they were toxic anyways so it's a good thing that I drove them away so I could realize that.

I was even homeless for a while during my shitty situation, and so when I wake up in a house it's surreal still after almost a year of living in it. I never thought I would be married, off of alcohol and drugs, and able to have a job I can do at home so my anxiety and depression aren't going to get me fired since I work my own hours.