Home wasn't a pleasant place to live, growing up.
I grew up in a very toxic home.
Home was never a safe place for me. I felt safer on the streets.
My first memory in the world is my gym teacher ripping my mother's necklace off her neck and throwing it out the window and her running downstairs to go after it. I have no memory before that. I was 4. My father had a lot of girlfriends and my mother had a lot of boyfriends.
I am sure that, had I grown up with both parents, had I grown up in a safe environment, had I grown up with a feeling of safety rather than danger, I would not be the way I am.
When young people grow up with fear as the norm, they don't have the luxury to dream.
My mother used to go out on her own, and I used to have to keep a look out for my stepfather coming home.
In my own upbringing, my family lacked the ability to provide a stable, nurturing environment.
Family life itself, that safest, most traditional, most approved of female choices, is not a sanctuary: It is, perpetually, a dangerous place.
In the Dolezal family, you couldn't always count on your parents to keep you safe.
I ended up living in fear for most of my childhood.
Sadly, there is no law against being an idiotic parent.
