Alexander Comerford
TCA SCHOLARSHIP
$2,725
AIM NationaLease
Girard, Ohio
In 2013, my dad left our house to become a truck driver. It was very hard on my family, especially since he had to take the job. He had recently been laid off from his previous job and it was the only immediate option he had to keep us from getting into a really bad situation. At that point, I was only starting high school and I was dealing with challenging classes and trying to fit in. Then I got hit with this. However, it really helped me in some ways. The biggest way that it impacted me was helping me to grow up. At the blink of an eye, I become the man of the house and I was forced to take on a lot of responsibility. I became somewhat of an adult fairly quickly. It also put a lot of stress on my mom. She had suddenly become the sole caretaker of my sister and me. She also had to take on all the home-managing responsibilities on top of having her own job to keep us afloat. It also proved very hard to not have my dad here to support all of us. It was a big adjustment not having him around for homework help and other things. Of course, it was hard, but it did help me to grow up and become independent. It has been so long now too that it has become a little bit easier on my family.