There is no school in the summer time.

“Don’t grow up too fast, you’ll never get your childhood back.” Those are words I have heard throughout my whole life. Different traumatic events in my life have caused me to grow up faster than average children my age. These events have caused me to jump for the childish spring time of my life to the grown up summer time of my life. Events such as my grandfather’s death, my dad’s first divorce and growing up without a mother have risen my maturely level passed people's expectations .

On February 28th, 2001 my grandfather passed away. Till then I could proudly say he was my best friend. At the time I was only seven years old, I had never waited in a house full of mourning people late at night, I had never be to a funeral and I had never had the feeling that he was never coming back. That incident gave me my first taste of death and made me realize at one point everyone was eventually going to die.

Another unfortunate circumstance that caused me to make a giant leap toward the summer time of my life was growing up without a mother. Unlike the situation with my grandfather, I never knew my mother. She passed away when I was just a baby. I wasn’t as attached to her as I was to my grandfather, but I was still missing something: a mother figure. As a child I never had a mother’s touch, a mother’s teachings or a mother’s love. Don’t get me wrong I had a step-mom at one point that I loved dearly, but she wasn’t the real thing. This forced me to teach myself how to be a strong, confident, but independent woman.

Later on, after my mother passed away, my dad remarried a few years later to a pretty decent woman. They were together till I was about eight years old, then my dad started developing issues. He never would come home at night, which caused my stepmother to be a nervous wreck. This meant I was taking care of myself at a very young age. When the issues became worst it forced my parents to get a divorce. Imagine, an eight year old girl packing her things up in the house she thought she would live forever and moving to an area she never saw before, with someone she is unfamiliar with. Yes, I Samantha Silberstein an eight-year girl at the time packed my things up and moved to Philadelphia to live with my grandmother.

As traumatic as my childhood may seem, I am glad I lived thought it. My childhood caused me to jump into summer part of my life, way earlier then others my age and I am completely happy with it. Some people never to get to experience what having a conscience or a sense of maturity feels like. Frankly, I feel sorry for them.