My good friend Mary will soon be 18 and thrown out into the real world. Mary Smith (not her real name) was born in 1984 in Oakland. She grew up in West Oakland. When she was born, her mother moved less-than-a-month-old Mary and her 4-year-old sister, Jane to Los Angeles with her boyfriend.

While in Los Angeles, Mary and her sister were physically abused by their mother's boyfriend. While her mother was at work, if he got tired of them, they were put in separate boxes. During one of the times she was placed in a box, she had an asthma attack. Authorities took Mary away from her mother, and she was placed in a foster home in Los Angeles.

"I don't really know how I ended up in a foster home. I guess my mother didn't want me," Mary said.

She later stayed briefly with an older woman.

"I remember her being old and sweet. I had the best room in the house. I had a canopy bed, but I only stayed there for one week, " Mary recalled.

Mary's father had found out that she was in a Los Angeles foster home. He took her back to Oakland and filed for custody. After her father was granted custody, her sister came to live with them for a year. As a young child, Mary grew up without help from anyone. Her father couldn't read very well, so he was unable to teach her or help her with her homework.

As the years progressed, things just got worse. When Mary was 6 years old, her father started dating. The relationship between Mary and her father's girlfriend wasn't so sweet. She would keep Mary in the backyard to clean dog droppings until she came back from taking her children to school. Mary didn't go to school because she would get into fights over the teasing from her fellow students, so her father's girlfriend would take her to the Oakland library and she'd sit there until her father came home from work.

At times, the woman would beat Mary after arguing with Mary's father.

"I used to think that my father's girlfriend was a witch, and that she had put a spell on him because I couldn't understand why he would continue to stay with her, " Mary said.

As the teen-age years approached, Mary got into trouble with the law. At 11, she started selling drugs. She was caught several times and thrown into Juvenile Hall. She had run away from home because she couldn't bear the pain, hurt, sadness and agony at home.

During her teen-age years, she felt sad and confused. She didn't understand why this had happened to her. Mary was caught for the last time. She was placed in an area Juvenile Hall, where she stayed for six and a half months. When she was released, she was brought to a foster home in Antioch. Mary's social worker sent her to Antioch to live with a foster family because she didn't want her to be around drugs and wind up back at Juvenile Hall.

"I'm glad I came out here, " she said. "It gave me a chance to make something of myself. It was hard at first, having to go to school because I never went when I was supposed to. Now I go, and I want to further my education and be somebody."

"As I got older, I realized that I'm not the only one going through tough times. This whole ordeal made me strive for the better and for more."

Mary also forgave both her parents.

"I talk to my father as much as possible. However, as for my mother, I really don't associate with her very much."

"For kids going through the same thing or similar, no matter what, always stay in school, better yourself and go that extra mile."

There is always a lesson to learn in life and a test that we all have to go through. Will we learn that lesson before it's too late and pass that test? Only time can tell.

-Tenile Watford, 16 - Junior at Live Oak High School