A normal night on the streets for me, cold, lonely, sad and boring as I sat on the side of the road. I was on a sidewalk not too far from the freeway and the local drug store. I was friendly, and respected everyone, but I was tough, brave and strong, and not going to let anyone mess with me. I live in New York City to try and get my life back together from my horrific accident. Not too long ago I lived in beautiful, bright California with my family happy as can be. I have long brown hair and blue eyes, I loved life in California. The beach was my favorite part of where I lived, and my friends and I did everything together. We lived in our swimsuits, sunglasses, and flip flops. My perfect life came to a halt when one night when my family was asleep, a fire started and I woke up just in time to get my brother and I out the window. As we watched our house go up in flames and screamed for our parents it was too late, they were gone with the house.
My brother and I got a one way ticket to New York to live with my “godparents”. My aunt and uncle were the most irresponsible adults I knew, they could barely take care of each other how were they going to care for my brother and I? They hit and whipped my brother and I when we did not listen, we were miserable. A few months later my brother went off the college far, far away. I couldn’t bare to live with my aunt and uncle anymore so I packed up the clothes I had, a picture of my parents, and left. Not sure where I was going or what I was doing but I went looking for a job. I filled out a few applications for small stores like coffee shops. That night was the first time I had ever spent a night on the streets but tonight I would have to. A sixteen year old girl, sleeping on a bench in Central Park, New York. Shaking from the cold I barely got any sleep, it was horrible. I wanted to go back to my aunt and uncle and apologize for everything and go into my room and crawl into my bed and never come out. But I knew I had to stand my ground in order to prove to myself I could be better than them. When it was sunrise, I grabbed my bag from the bench and headed down to the coffee shop, where I had applied for a job. Obviously, I could not afford coffee, so I sat and waited till the city of New York woke up. I watched all day people come in and out, I watched their body language and the way they presented themselves towards strangers. I was fascinated how people dresses themselves and did their hair. After watching people all day, a women who worked at the shop came up to me,
“Hello darling, are you Alex?”.
“Yes I am”, I said. The lady pulled up a chair and  sat down with me,
“I wanted to inform you that you got the job to work here!”.My heart raced with excitement and joy,  
“Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me, I”ll be the best and hardest worker here! What time do I start?”, I said.
“Well, you can start tomorrow if you would like, come in around seven and I can show you how to work everything”. We both stood up and shook hands.
“Thank you so much”, I said and walked out the door.
The lady’s name was Susan, she was about thirty five years old. She had short dark hair and a green eyes, I think she cared about me because I don’t think anyone else in New York would hire a sixteen year old girl. Susan had a warm heart and I immediately respected her. She smelt like flowers. I felt as if new doors had opened up in my life and I finally had a chance in life to feel successful at something. No matter if it was this small, it was still something better than my godparents will ever be.
I began working at the coffee shop making seven dollars and hour. Since I was homeless I didn’t really have much to do so I worked as much as possible. I wore the same two outfits I had and soon my clothes became really dirty and smelly. It had been about two weeks, into my job and I convinced my boss, Susan to pay me every week instead of every two weeks. Anyways, I decided to go try and find some new clothes for me to wear. After work, I walked around for awhile going into stores and trying to find the cheapest shirts and pants possible. Finally I got a deal for ten dollars for a thin shirt and a pair of jeans that I grabbed from the kids section. It was small, I know but all I could afford. Besides, I was happy than ever to go to work and show off my new clothes, that I bought with having that job.
The week went by pretty slowly, I worked everyday with Susan and we talked about how we both ended up in New York. Susan was such a nice person, I told her basically everything that happened to me expect for the part about me being homeless. I was afraid she would fire me if I told her I was homeless. As we were talking, a women walked in. She had long brown hair and was wearing sunglasses, and all sorts of jewelry. She was wearing clothes so expensive my jaw dropped. This women was being followed my people so she had to be someone famous. She ordered a coffee and then sat down. I made it for her trying to figure out who that woman was. I gave her the coffee and she left. Susan and I spent the rest of the day trying to think of what famous person it could have been. After work was over, I went to go get some food from the same gas station I do every other day. I was eating a fruit bar, when I look up and saw the same woman from the coffee shop. She was on the other side of the street with a few people following her. I walked up to someone,
“Excuse me, do you know who that person is? Why is she being crowded by people?”. The person looked at me strange and said,
“Its fashion week in New York, and thats a model, her name is Tyra Banks.”. I politely said,
“Thank you!”, and walked away. I thought back to my childhood to try and see if I remember this Tyra Banks person on television. I remember her a little bit, her face became more familiar the more I thought about it. I went back to the coffee shop the next morning and told Susan all about it. She didn’t know who I was talking about but it didn’t matter because I did. I really wanted to watch the fashion show and Susan invited me over to her apartment to watch it after work. We both closed the shop and went over to her place, it was a small but nice apartment. Very organized and clean, we sat on her couch and watched the fashion show. I saw Tyra Banks and was amazed that I gave her coffee. It seemed stupid at the moment, but it gave me hope to one day become rich and famous. I wanted to be like Tyra Banks, in the fashion industry.
After I left Susan’s house I stopped by an art store and bought a little fifty cent note pad and a one dollar box of color pencils. I actually had good amount of money, but still being homeless I couldn’t spend a lot of it. Before work, I sat on my bed or park bench and pulled out the beautiful colors and began sketching clothing, models and jewelry. My drawings were really bad, they made me laugh but I was so happy to have some color in my life even if it was just colored pencils. Over the next few weeks I had multiple sketches my models that all looked like Tyra Banks with clothes I had seen in the fashion show and what I saw from people coming into the coffee shop. I loved drawing, it was my way of escaping my sad life and being creative in my own way. As the days went on, the coffee shop business got slower and slower, which left more time for Susan and I to talk about our lives and dreams. She wanted to become a photographer but has never been able to afford a nice camera. Maybe one day we would both finally be happy, living large in the penthouses of New York city.
One night on the streets, the weather was warm for once and lots of people were out late walking around enjoying the nice day. Susan and I closed up the coffee shop early so we each could spend some time to our selves. I walked back to my bench where I was drawing most clothes, when one of my fellow homeless friend came up to me.
“Hey Alex, whatcha doin?”, he said.
“Oh just doodling and enjoying the weather,”
“Oh nice, well do you wanna do something a little more exciting?”, he said with a smirk.
“Well what did you have in mind?”, I said curiously. The next morning I woke up in a bed, with sheets, and covers, and blankets. I was inside a room with white walls. I had no idea why I was in a bed and not on my bench in the park. I sat up nervously and looked around, I could hear people talking outside my door. I looked around the room some more, and saw a monitor next to me. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and looked down, an IV was in my arm. I was in a hospital. Confused and nervous I began to shout for someone, anyone to talk to. Soon a nurse came in,
“Oh good you’re awake, how are you feeling dear?”, she said.
“Wha-wha-what happened to me?”, I said with a shake in my voice.
“You have rohypol in your system, other words, or have been roofied sweety”
“What? How could that have happened to me?, I said, so terrified.
“Your friend, well not really your friend, convinced you to drink water with the drug in
it, I’m sorry”, she said. I didn’t know what to say, the doctors explained more detail, and apparently someone found me on the side on the street passed out. It was all so scary, but the nurses were very nice and sweet to me.
I was soon released out of the hospital, which was sad for a homeless girl but I knew I needed to change my life. I continued to work at the coffee shop but I also managed to get an internship at a small clothing store. I worked day and night, and was making more money than ever. I bought several pieces of clothes from the boutique I worked at but I was still homeless. I needed a big break, something to boost me up out of this hole I was living in. I was homeless for over a year when finally my chance to shine came.
It was a typical Tuesday and I was hanging up clothes on racks and folding them neatly when a young women yelling on the phone came in. She was the prettiest women I had ever seen, she had long brown hair, so skinny and tall. She walked into the store more looking around at all the clothes. She hung out her phone and said,
“Excuse, me do you work here?”
In that moment I realized I had seen her before, at the coffee shop. It was Tyra Banks!! One of the worlds well known models in America, I said with my eyes wide open,
“Yes, what can I help you with?”
“I need a scarf for a shoot I’m doing tomorrow, do you think you could help me?” So I helped her pick out one of the shops many scarfs and we laughed and got along great, like we already knew each other. It was the best day of my life, because I was not only shopping with the one and only Tyra Banks but she made time for me and listened to me. At the end when she was paying for the scarf she said nicely,
“I love what you’re wearing”
“Thanks I designed it myself with some leftover cloth in the back room!”, I said.
“ Wow you’re really talented, you should come work with me, I could get you an
internship at Coco Chanel.”
I looked at her like she was my mother, like she was an angel, like she had just opened a door for me. Of course I went with her, she meant everything to me. She introduced me to all her co-workers which included models, designers, stylists, and the store manager of the Coco Chanel.
Tyra and I became so close, we were like mother and daughter close. I had to quite my job at the coffee shop with Susan when I quite Susan said the homeless man that roofied me had my journal with all my sketches. Susan was proud of me and she knew I had to leave her for a better life. I showed Tyra my journal with her modeling all my clothes I had designed and told her about my entire life, including me being homeless and roofied. She did not hesitate to tell me to move in with her, in her massive penthouse. I was finally living my dream, I had met my best friend and closest person to a mother which happened to be Tyra Banks. She took such good care of me, I loved her so much. Soon I got a job at Coco Chanel after Tyra showed the manager my designs. Tyra said if I kept working hard I could create my own line and she and others would model them for me. I worked all day everyday, with the biggest smile on my face, I was the happiest girl in the world.
A few months after working with Tyra, I had my own line of clothes in the store and it was a huge success. I was able to buy my very own apartment with the money I made and saved up over all the years. Susan and I kept in contact and I still go to the coffee shop and work on designs and talk to her. My brother also became quite happy with a happy marriage and three kids in a small house in Georgia. As for my aunt and uncle, well I have not talked to them or seen them since I walked out of their apartment door when I was sixteen years old. I never looked back on them I do not regret it to this day. I told myself I was going to be better than them and I finally did it, but for my parents. Tyra knew she was like a mother to me and we talked about my parents a lot, I became the person I am today because of my parents. I worked hard and never gave up for my parents. From the day I met Tyra I thanked my parents everyday because we both knew they helped me find my way to the top.