j00ni - I am Jonathan
I was born in Blackpool in 1984. My birth mother had bipolar disorder, and my father schizophrenia. As a result of this (according to my papers) I was taken into foster care straight from the hospital. I was in foster care in Blackpool until I was 6 months old, when I was adopted by my parents. I still see my foster parents fairly often, and withe their help I have recently started to track down my birth parents. I'm planning a trip to the records office later this month and am so nervous as I know almost nothing about the people who brought me into this world, not even if either are still alive.
I have a sister, who is two years younger than me who is also adopted.
I couldn't have asked for a better family growing up, I was never treated any different to if I was their own, and as long as I can remember they have always been totally honest about my adoption. Both my parents come from large families, and the love and support I have received from them over the years, I couldn't wish for anything more. My childhood was very happy, and although we lived a long way from my school friends me and my sister and her best friend (who lived nearby) got up to the usual mischief, leaving the house in the morning and not coming home all day (except when we were dragged back by angry neighbours
).
School has always been an enjoyable release for me, I am quite shy, and learning how things work and all about everything was a welcome release for me, I didn't make many friends at primary school apart from my best friend who I have known for more than 16 years now, and who I live with at uni! Not wanting to sound big headed, but academically I cruised through school almost on autopilot, getting into an excellent local grammar school - which further gave me even more scope to extend my knowledge of everything that interested me. I will froever be grateful to the school for allowing us to guide our own education and to feel like we were participating in education, rather than being taught.
For as long as I can remember I have wanted to be a doctor, and my A level choices reflected this. The first year of my A levels was possibly one of the best times of my life, I made lots of new friends, was loving doing subjects that I truely enjoyed, and after a few years of blazing rows my parents weren't argueing nearly as much as they had been.
All was going well, and I had just got my AS results, when my dad dropped the bombshell that he was moving out! For me this was a completely devastating shock, and completely out of the blue. As it transpired the lull in the rows my parents had been having was due to my dad having met another woman
and the first I heard of this was the day he moved out. This really knocked me for six, I had always looked up to my dad, but for him to do something so terrible and disrespecting to my mum, I lost all my respect for him. I struggled to come to terms with what had happened, especially as what he did flew in the face of some of my strongest held beliefs. I cut off almost all contact with my dad.
My academic performance started to slip, and if it wasn't for one friend I probably would have imploded, but as she had gone through a similar thing with her parents, she seemed to know exactly what to say and I will always love her for pulling me through
I managed to pull my socks up and get the grades needed to get into med school. Also, on the encouragement of my mum (who I admire for having the courage to do so), I started seeing my dad, and his new girlfriend. Doing so allowed me to see that both my parents were much happier now and gave me some closure and I now get on much better with my dad.
I had an amazing first year at uni. It was everything I hoped it would be and more (apart from emptying a dead bloke's colon, bleurgh), passed the first year (just!). Then, over summer my sister dropped out of college, and my dad stopped paying support payments to my mum (which she needs as she couldn't work often as she looked after her parents, her mum with dementia and her dad who had had a stroke). It turned out that the divorce settlement had been a bit grey about child support payments and my dad had interpreted it that he didn't have to pay.
As a result I spent a lot of the semester at home, mediating between my parents. In the midst of all this my maternal grandmother died, which added to the stress. I just about managed to reach a compromise between my parents and thankfully avoided court, but by then I had already missed almost all my lectures that semester and unsurprisingly failed.
Luckily since then everything has settled down, my sister has got a job which she loves and can afford to help my mum with bills etc. I have resat the semester I failed, and actually discovered a love for the subject area of that semester (neuroscience) and passed with flying colours in january. I start my clinical placement at Preston hospital in september and cannot wait!
phew, that was the first time I have properly told that whole story to anyone, and it felt good to get it all out. This OcUK group therapy is great
Glad to hear things have got better tho - and I hope they continue to do so!
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I'm confused by that...
. I was born in Burton on Trent and went to the John Taylor high School. My dad was a pro musician and my mum was a home help carer, at the age of 11 i decided i wanted to take up music and my parents bought me my first saxophone 
