A regular day in the life of Aidan Jacobs better known as AJ.

5:40 am

His alarm rings. AJ wakes up and washes his face to wake himself up, stares at himself in the reflection of the mirror for more than 10 minutes, sheds some tears, brings his chest forward, wipes it away and throws on some sweatpants and a clean T. He had another flashback of his past last night during his dream.

5:50 am

The sunlight shines through the balcony door of his shared apartment. In the kitchen he makes himself a smoothie and heads out on his way. His third alarm sounds.

6:00 am

Every chapter in life is a lesson. The morning breeze flows through his permed brown hair while he listens to rap music on his airpods. Drops of sweat came off of him as if it was raining. Running is his passion. He started to like running in the seventh grade. Enjoyed going out for peaceful runs in the outdoors instead of being home where his “parents” would argue and fight. He never understood why they were together if they did not love each other. What they had was not love. What was love? Maybe they were scared of the thought of being alone. Domestic violence is when there are violent aggressive behaviors in the household, his mom being a victim. A broken family. He's running from his past lowkey dying on the inside wanting to feel love and affection, something he had never felt before. His parents didn't love him. Thursday: He got beat by his dad for no reason while watching tv, he did not do anything his mom told him to skip school until Monday, he had a black eye and was bruised. If his mom loved him wouldn't she have done something? Returning to school that Monday like nothing had happened he laughed with his friends when making jokes but was he really happy? Everyone thought he was with the appearance of his fake smile. He used to sprint out of his house, he forgot about everything. His ability to run was amazing. Running cleared his mind he felt like it was a way to escape from reality. Numbed the pain he had inside the one he felt when he saw his mom being beat. The same one he felt when he realized his mom felt nothing for him when she saw him being beaten. 

Why Me. 

Why Me. 

Why Me. 

Sprinting almost every day he steadily got skilled. In school he was known as AJ a “normal” teenager, popular, and in the football team- those were some words to describe him from everyone's perspective. But really he was far from the normal, not letting anyone close because he was traumatized, he felt like love had a different meaning and never wanted to experience so he closed up, no one had any idea of what he went through. His definition of love was not the same as others. He was amongst the group of teenagers classified as the popular crowd. Walked to school everyday since his parents never took him. Grades for him were only important to maintain because he wanted to stay in the team. He didn't want to go home, he'd rather stay after school and practice for his games. His parents missed his graduation, they never asked “How was your day” or if he was doing good they didn't show any compassion towards him. AJ did not feel loved he felt Alone so he didn't consider it home his home was school. Two miles in he looks at his watch and it reads 

11:08 minutes

“Not too bad, I haven't run in awhile” he says. 

6:24 am

and he stops at a hillto see the sky filled with palm trees. He appreciated small things like this. He truly is grateful for peaceful moments. Walks back to his apartment. 

6:45 am

He showers quickly and wakes up his roommate Steven. They share the apartment. He is in college now. Aj lives with his friend who works in a restaurant his family owns. AJ lived off a quote his teacher once told him and remembers till this day, what could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail. He kept that mindset and put his mind to anything he wanted to accomplish. His parents never went to any of his games. It's okay he didn't really care he bottled up feelings a cold hearted no feeling individual he had feelings very deep down inside but he raised himself to not show them. No one had yet known his story.