Aimee Elizabeth assumed adult responsibility as an adolescent resulting from neglect.
She shared, “My parents were drinking too much, and dad was also cheating on mom. At age 15, my mom started accusing me of all kinds of things I wasn’t doing, calling me awful names, and grounding me when I hadn’t done anything wrong. I begged my dad to help me, but he couldn’t be bothered, he had his girlfriend keeping his attention. After being wrongfully punished for months, I decided to go to war with my mom. I did anything and everything to make her mad – it worked! Finally one day (while dad was out of town), I came home to find the screen door locked, so I couldn’t use my key on the front door. Perplexed, I rang the doorbell. Mom came to the door, drunk, and nastily asked me, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘Oh, I guess I don’t live here anymore. Can I at least get my school books?’ I was still just a good kid at heart. She told me to come in, and take all my stuff, because I wasn’t coming back. As far as I was concerned, I had just escaped from the insane asylum, my parent’s home.”
Aimee continued to attend school in an effort to keep something normal in her life.
She continued, “My homelessness didn’t last longer than an afternoon. I got a newspaper, found an apartment, and applied for the cheapest slum apartment I could afford. It was $225/month, all utilities paid. Lucky for me, I had been working since I was 8 years old and thanks to my dad, who taught me about banking, I had my own checking account with $1,500 on the day of eviction. I was afraid of bugs, the dark, and of being alone. I was once kidnapped but escaped, and another time almost gang-raped but managed to escape that also. I have had terrifying nightmares to this day, when before I used to sleep like a baby.”
Her words about survival, “As a teenager, you think you are invincible. I never realized the danger I was in at the time – but looking back, the older I get, the more horrified I become. But I was just in survival mode.”
Click here to read how Aimee transitioned her life and became a self-made millionaire.
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