“I grew up, like, savage. My stepfather abused me starting at...

“I grew up, like, savage. My stepfather abused me starting at the age of four. My mother threw me out when I was fourteen. I became addicted to drugs. I fell in love with a drug dealer and we had a daughter. He hit me but I had nowhere else to go. I tried to get away from everything when I turned nineteen. I thought: ‘I’m leaving Puerto Rico and I’m going to change.’ But on the plane to New York, the guy next to me was a heroin user. And he convinced me to try it. And things got worse in New York. It was even harder because I was alone. I ended up in the street. I was jumping from house to house. I was doing what I had to do to survive, you know. The government took my children away. I was lost for so many years but I’m a new person now. I’m sober and I’m working and I’m going to church. But I struggle a lot. I have all these emotions and I don’t know where they come from. It’s like I can’t control them. And when I’m with other people, I feel less. My past always comes back to me. I say to myself: ‘Who do you think you are? You’ve done so many bad things. And you don’t even know how to talk right.’ I can never get away from the things that I’ve done. But Jesus forgives me, you know? He knows that I’m a sinner person and he still loves me. My past does not matter to him. He is changing my thinking. He is helping me start new. Without him, I would have nothing to hang onto.”