My life.

My father was a drunk, did drugs, stayed out all night, cheated on my mother, abused me and my siblings and contributed to an overall life of poverty for us. So poor were we, that we never go to participate in activities, sports, camp, after school programs, play dates of much of anything.
Life at home and behind closed doors was anything but good.
Somehow with a life similar to ours, you became an avid musician. Thats pretty amazing! That is the one main regret that I harbor about my childhood–that is they didn’t help us to develop a hobby, skill or interest that we could fade into. Instead, we turned to drugs for escape and financial survival. And my family==even my siblings are all dead from drugs and alcohol–which is why I would urge you not to follow you dad’s footsteps. He’s lucky that he survived. But Im a firm believer that any parent doing drugs or alcohol in a home where children are present, that they are committing child abuse. And there’s no such thing as rehab, etc. The parent must be removed from the home until they have completed and extensive rehab program and maintained sobriety for at least 6 mos before returning to the home.
It’s really lonely to be all alone on this earth without the people I knew. I wish that I had an instrument to thrust myself into–because being able to play live for an audience would have really built up confidence and self-esteem that I was never able to build.

Oh, and guess what… you can pick and choose what you how you present yourself publically. You do not have to be defined by your feelings of yourself or the heartbreak of being raised in a broken home without a father. These are details that you are free to lie about. It’s when you lie or with hold information that hurts another person that is a concern.

You’re in a big boat with a lot of the rest of us. Don’t despair. Your passion is your music. Go with it.