It's been many years since my nightmares passed but they always remained in my memory. Before coming to live here with my Aunt Marie in Maryland, I lived with my mother and father in Virginia. My father was a commander and my mother a good housewife who loved me so much. All the difficulties and hostile experiences of my life began when a civil war broke out in Virginia. I was only nine years old then. One evening, my mother and I received terrible news regarding the death of my father while serving in the country. The news was quite terrifying for us and it was like the sky had fallen. A few months after my father died, my mother decided to move to Maryland where Aunt Marie lived because it was no longer safe for us to live in Virginia. We started our journey but unfortunately the streets of Virginia were filled with crowds of people who were also heading to somewhere safer like us. I squeezed my mother's hands tightly, but the crowd was too big and I was thrown to the ground. As soon as I looked up, I knew the crowd had separated me from my mother. My heart stopped as there was no sign of mom anywhere I looked. I stood stiffly in the crowd, feeling horrified, scared and nervous. Later two men called Toby and Scott came up to me and offered to help. I explained to them what had happened and they told me to follow them to find my mother. Although we searched for many hours, we couldn't find mom, so they told me to stay at their house until I could find my mom. They took me through the main streets, villages and finally stopped in a fenced area where there were no houses. All I saw there were people working as slaves at many tasks and most of them were beaten on the back and legs while they worked. Never...... middle of paper ... most were no longer in my life, even after I finally escaped from the hands of the brutal terrorists. I didn't know what to do, so I roared at the top of my lungs and heart. However, I now feel satisfied with my life and have accepted that everything is happening as it should. Looking back on my life, I knew that I had probably had a difficult journey but I do not regret my life. I learned that whenever life knocks us down, all we need to do is have courage, passion and face it with courage until we achieve victory. I am now well taken care of by my aunt and my greatest friend, Max, is with me. Many challenges will await me in life, but I can proudly say that I am ready to overcome everything. I will now end this here and my final message to the readers is to hold on and fight no matter how hard things are..