Elizabeth says ...

I got involved in GOLD while I was in grade 10. Since then my life has been seriously turbulent but GOLD has been key to helping me make the hard decisions I’ve had to make. GOLD helped me develop level headed thinking abilities and these are not just skills I’ve used in the classroom during GOLD sessions – they have really helped me to deal with my own life. GOLD also helped me realise that you don’t need a title to be a leader and that regardless of how young I was, I was the leader in my own life. I also learned that adults can be wrong and that children need not be afraid to take the lead in their own lives.

My mom had always done her very best to give me everything that I wanted and needed, and although she loved me very much, she was a victim of manic depression and bipolar disorder. I never understood these illnesses until I joined GOLD and learnt about emotional and mental issues and how sufferers struggle to help themselves.

My mother walked out on me in the December of 2008. She packed her bags in the middle of the night and when I woke up she was gone. My sister, whom at that time was in her early twenties, had to take on the task of trying to get through university as well as keep an eye on me, her teenage sister. It wasn’t the best of situations. Sure, it was fun being free to do whatever I pleased, but at the same time I had to learn to take responsibility for myself. I had to get a job, buy food when there was none and arrange how I got to school and back again.

Through this GOLD helped me keep focussed on what was important and reminded me that there were millions of children in the world suffering. I had a lot to be thankful for. But it did not change the fact that I was failing at school and on the verge of losing all composure and totally going off the rails. I just remembered all the values and the vision that GOLD was trying to instill in the youth and that is what pulled me through.

In April 2009 my mother came back, asking to move back in as she had nowhere else to go. My sister, looking for a way out of the whole unhealthy situation, jumped at the chance to get on with her life. My mother moved in, but made it very clear that she was not there to be my mother, or take any responsibility for me. I spent three days with my mother. The first night was calm, but from then onwards she fell back into the cycle emotional and physical abuse that I was expected of her. The third morning I went to work and broke down. With the help of a dear friend I made the decision to move out, for good.

I knew my mother loved me dearly, but that did not change the fact that she was not coping with the responsibility that I was her child. I found an attorney to represent me and filed for a restraining order as well as to be legally removed from my mother’s guardianship. It’s been over a year and a half since I moved out and I don’t regret a second that I spent with my mother, or away from her. It has been one huge learning experience that has shaped me into who I am today. Ultimately I have learned that people are bound by blood, but love is what makes a family.