For as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe. My favorite quote out of all his stories would be “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." When I was eight years old, my mother got diagnosed with breast cancer. The day I was told that I thought it was just a dream, more of a nightmare, really; But no, reality came crashing down all around me. I saw things that no child should have to watch their parents or anyone go through. My mother is one of my biggest inspirations because she is the strongest person in the world. From the time I was six to fifteen I was emotionally abused. The last eighteen months leading up to my sixteenth birthday, I was physically abused by my adoptive mother. For eighteen months I felt and heard things that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, but I still do wish that it was all a dream. It has been six months since I left, and I am slowly getting better. I don’t feel like everyone is out to get me per say. Due to those traumatic events I have had many battles with my mental illnesses.  There have been times I was convinced I was going to lose, but with the support of some close friends and family I have gotten through it. I have been told that from the outside my life looks like the perfect dream. But little do they know my life is nothing but a dream within a dream.