The House on Ainsley Drive

I grew up in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in a raised ranch home on Ainsley Drive.

My father was raising four children as a single father. My mother struggled with alcoholism. My stepmother struggled with alcoholism.

The home carried challenges that a child should never have had to understand.

As a child, I did not always have the language to explain what was happening. I only knew what it felt like. I knew what it felt like to feel different. I knew what it felt like to carry things other people could not see.

School was not always easy. I had an IEP and felt that traditional education did not always understand the way my mind worked. I struggled socially. I struggled feeling understood.

But there was something that came naturally. Writing. Poetry gave me a different way to communicate. Where normal

conversations felt difficult, words on a page felt natural.

The same thing that made me feel different became the thing that helped me create.