Life can be full of ups and downs and consequences. My life however has been through many ups and downs, which aren’t like most peoples. I was born on January 4th, 1988 at 3:15 p.m in Torrington Connecticut. I was given the name Ashley Marie Moreau by Tammy Moreau. I weighed eight pounds eleven ounces. Between the time I was born to the time I was six months; I lived in Thomaston, Connecticut and Brookfield, Connecticut. Lets just say my mother was a whore. Having me when she was 16 years old, and also not knowing whom my father was. She turned to drugs throughout her life, which landed her in jail after taking care of me for six months. I was left to my god parents who were my aunt and uncle. After taking me in at six months it took up until I was five years old to get my adoption into place. As soon as the adoption went through my name changed from Ashley Marie Moreau to Ashley Marie Buckley. I accepted them as being my own parents learning words and calling them mommy and daddy. My first Christmas was spent with them in December of 1988, and I spent my first birthday with them. While the adoption was taking place my biological mother still had visitation rights with me by the courts.

At the age of three, I started preschool. I attended Room to Grow in Morris, Connecticut. I attended school there until I was 5 years old. From there I then attended kindergarten at Litchfield Center School in Litchfield Connecticut. I opened up to relationships with other kids more and those whom I’ve known since I started preschool. My relationship with one friend that I’ve known since I was two grew stronger. My relationship with people that I went to pre school with also grew. Making new friends helped out a lot, by the time I was in first grade I made friends with mostly girls. By the time I was in second grade, I stayed friends with those girls and also began to make friends with the guys. During recess I played games with them more than I did my girl friends. My relationships with hanging out with the guys improved over the school years.

When I was four years old, I visited North Carolina. My grandmother owned her own restaurant called "Fox Hollow". My father, mother, and I drove down to visit. My father’s side of the family accepted me as being their own relative which made it seem like I was part of the family. I got along with my cousins and did everything with them. When I was five years old my grandmother and my aunt moved to Florida. When I went to visit them I went to Disney World. I also learned later in that age that I had one sister who lived in Terryville, and 2 years later learning that I had another sister whom I got to know from being around my family but not living with me.

At the beginning of the 4th grade; I attended school at Litchfield Intermediate School. Some relationships that I had with the people I was friends with grew stronger. While others collapsed and different cliques of people started forming. I lost some of the friends that I had in the past, and also gained some different ones. Most of the friends that I had turned into being part of the clique that they call "popular". I started to play the trumpet and decided I didn’t like playing it so I joined chorus. I loved being a part of it. I also started playing soccer on the town’s co-ed team. This helped me make a stronger bond and friendship with other people. In 5th grade, I decided to play the clarinet, which I loved playing. I was put into a literary project with three other people in my class. I also was in advanced math being ahead of 95% of the grade in mathmatics. I loved doing that type of things being ahead of the rest of the class. That year also the whole grade went to Boston, MA. It was amongst one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. I spent a whole weekend with the entire grade. Visiting Plymouth Rock, The Science Museum, and also Plymouth Village. In 6th grade I had a different group of people to look forward to being friends with. I had four people that I still was friends with, and I also made more friends with people that I hadn’t associated with before. I was still taking chorus and I was in band. However I had several different classes with other people from my grade.

The summer from 6th grade to 7th grade was exciting yet terrifying. This also was my second time I visited Florida. In September of that year, I started school at Litchfield High School. I started school in a whole different environment where the school included more than 800 students from grades 7th through 12th. I continued my math course taking pre-algebra and was ahead of 95% of the entire grade. I continued playing the clarinet in band. I also continued playing soccer on the town’s travel team. Playing soccer against other teams in the area. I made a stronger friendship with the girls that I played with. When I was in 8th grade, I quit playing soccer and turned to playing field hockey instead. That made a huge improvement as I preferred playing that sport. This was the year that I started seeing a drastic change in my grades. None of the teachers wanted to help with my grades; I was failing one of my classes and barely passing three of my classes. I slid past 8th grade into my freshman year.

At the end of the summer, before my freshman year; I fell into an acute coma. After doing tests the doctors thought I had appendicitis. They rushed me to Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford. This was also the year that I had a lot of things happening. I started playing field hockey in the beginning of the season. Then the first two weeks of school I kept going back to the hospital. During the winter I also started cheerleading and being on the pep squad. This was also the year when I had my first boyfriend; which lasted three months. My sophomore year I also was failing most of my classes from the lack of teacher support. I made more friends with younger people who supported me. I also started counseling from depression that resulted from my adoption. In the spring I started crew, rowing for Litchfield Hills Rowing Club which was Litchfield High and Wamogo Regional High School combined. I made some more friends through that sport.

My junior year was the year where a lot of things happened. I got my license in August and I started working at Stop and Shop in Litchfield. I had to quit field hockey to work. In October of my junior year, I was failing all my classes from even more lack of help from my teachers. I was fired from my job, and I also turned to drinking and drugs. In the beginning of October, I broke down and committed myself to the psyche program at Saint Francis Hospital. I spent three weeks in that hospital going through emotional issues and quitting drugs. It saved my life, and I met seven of the best people in that program. It was hard, but it helped save my life. At the beginning of November, I was sent home after going through counseling. After getting out of the hospital, I was put into the Charlotte Hungerford Partial Hospital Program (PHH), which was after school.

I went back to school at Litchfield, still having some emotional problems. I couldn’t deal with the people at the school. After three weeks of struggling through school going through emotional problems, I couldn’t deal with the people and the workload that was given to me. I was put into special ed for two classes out of the four that I was taking at that time throughout the PHH program. I made five really good friends there whom were going through some of the same problems that I was going through. Later in November, I couldn’t deal with anything anymore again all the issues I left the program and was sent to Waterbury Hospital. I spent two weeks there trying to deal with the issues, going on different kinds of meds. I continued the program at PHH, and left there before Christmas.

I was tutored at home from Litchfield High, because I wouldn’t go back to the school. I then applied to Explorations Charter School, which I started in the beginning of January. From the beginning of the second semester of school at Explorations I received higher grades; I had more help from the teachers and was much more happier, and I made friends quickly. That winter I also started skiing, going to Catamount Ski Resort in New York. In February of that year, at Mohawk in CT I fell and broke my ankle skiing. That being the three broken bones that I’ve had in my life (breaking my left arm rollerblading, and breaking my thumb on a clarinet case).

Before going to Waterbury Hospital, I also grew a relationship with one of my friends Matt Howard. The relationship lasted three weeks; I spent my weekends in Terryville with him. A month later, I also went out with one of my other friends in Terryville, Glenn Wallenberg. That relationship was one of the best ever. After being friends with him for two years. I met him through my ex-boyfriend Justin Hackett who I went out with in January of my Sophomore year. I was going out with Glenn while he was trying to break up with his girlfriend who he didn’t have feelings for anymore.

Later; I spent a month on weekends with one of my friends hanging out doing drugs and drinking. Getting close to my best friend Dan, doing different things, having a relationship with him. Then hanging out with my other friends Michelle, Kara, and Laura. Having Laura get me a boyfriend who I went out with for three months, making that relationship try to last. Then being dumped because of hanging out with two of my friends that he didn’t like. I had a really good relationship with my friend Preston, which was one of the people that I had a stronger relationship that I approved of. Spending time with him before he went to jail.

I went to Florida with my best friend over April vacation having the best vacation ever, and seeing one person that I didn’t see since I left Litchfield. The summer of that year was when my life went up and down. I spent two days with five of my best friends ever before my friend Kara went to Florida for the summer. Two weeks later, I then spent a whole weekend with seven of my friends, going to a party with one of my really good friends being depressed and drinking and not knowing where I was. And I also moved out to live in Torrington with my boyfriend. After a month and a half of living in Torrington and realizing I didn’t want to live there anymore I went back to my parents house. I quit doing drugs and drinking.

I then started my senior year at Explorations, where I still am attending. I also joined the Morris Fire Department in 2000. Where I currently am still in, enjoying being part of helping a community out. I plan to continue in that field being a EMT/Paramedic or a paid firefighter. During the summer my department is into marching. Currently the State Champs for marching for 3 years.