Jack Nguyen

Julie was born without a father. At the time, her dad thought he would be better off without a major responsibility.
She was my cousin and more importantly, my best friend. We were basically brother and sister because we lived in the same house and essentially, had the same parents. Luckily, Julie and I lived with my grandmother, my parents, her own mother and my two sisters. The seven of us were her main support system.
Her father never considered visiting her even though he knew where she lived and where she went to school. Having been a fatherless child, Julie had to gain outside support. Statistics show that fatherless and motherless children often begin to have social and behavioral issues.
When Julie was eleven, her mother moved out, deciding to start her own life elsewhere. She left behind her most valuable possession though, her daughter. As a family should, we kept Julie as if she was our own, but Julie soon became a compulsive liar. To my parents, lying is very disrespectful, but for some reason, Julie never straightened up. Eventually, my parents could not tolerate her excessive lying, so they sent Julie to live with my aunt in Ohio. From then on, every summer Julie was sent to Ohio.
In the summer of 2011, we received an unexpected message. My grandmother decided to have Julie move closer to her. I was depressed for a couple of months because my best friend moved 700 miles away from me. Before long, Julie was kicked out again, leaving her with limited options. Julie was left to live with aunt and uncle, Linda and David. With them, Julie lived a miserable life, even though they provided her with a job. She thought of suicide at one point, and she would call her best friend, me, for advice and comforting solutions. I have always helped her through her challenges and she would assist me in mine.
Helping people is not something I take lightly. Everybody needs advice at one point in his or her life. No one can make it through life alone, so I take time to counsel those in need. As Julie has been tossed from family to family, it has affected me because I feel that family should be the main support system, and I couldn’t do anything to handle her situation. Many families break up because of the distance from place to place, but today, Julie and I still communicate as if she still lived in Georgia.
Julie recently contacted me about her current difficulties. “Dude I can’t take this no more. I swear no matter