[XPERIA X8 General] KidCarter93:
I figure I'd make my 10,000th post a proper post rather than my usual crap, so here's the life story I was going to write before.

From when I was born until I was 2 years old I lived with my mum. Me and my brother, who's 5 years older, went to live with our dad after that because my mums fella used to beat her up and put me in a freezing cold bath because I wet the bed. Yes, he's a twat on a major level.

Nothing major really happened from then until I was 8. My best mate at the time, also 8, got stabbed and died in my arms. That image has haunted me throughout my life and I think about it every single day. Since then, I've always been a big supporter of stopping knife crime and always will be.

While growing up through school I was hated by most people, simply because my dad used to stand at the doorway at home while he was drunk and he'd say stuff to the people passing by.

Because of most people hating on me, I decided it would be a good idea to get involved in street crime because then I'd be able to take on those that had bullied me.

I was stealing from people on the streets, I was getting into constant fights with all kinds of different people but that was all nothing compared to the worst thing I ever done.

The worst thing was one bonfire night I lit a firework and launched it through someone's letterbox. I have no reason why I did it except for the crap excuse that I was young and foolish. It was only afterwards that I found out that the firework had missed someone by inches. My life and their life would've been ruined permanently and I never could've forgiven myself for it.

The crime stage of me was between the ages of 11 - 14.

I then got myself out of that lifestyle because I realized that if I carried on, by now I'd either be dead or in prison for life. The main reason I stopped though was because I realized that I was turning into the kind of person who had killed my friend those years beforehand.

It was when I was 15 that my life truly changed me and I'm unbelievably thankful for it.

It started off by me moving out of my dads and moved in with my mum. This gave me a lot of freedom and the ability to make my own choices in life, rather than being told what to do all the time.

I then left school because of all the pressure my dad had put me under and I was home schooled for about 6 months.

A couple of weeks before I turned 16 I slept with my girlfriend and she got pregnant. I was the happiest I'd ever been. Then because she was 16 aswell and her body wasn't ready for the baby, she had a miscarriage. I'd gone from being the happiest I'd ever felt, to the worst I'd ever felt. Words could never describe how that made me feel and even to this day I think about how he would've been, where he'd be going to school etc.

When I was 16, I went on an IT apprenticeship which had a side course of media which I took part in. We made a documentary about stopping knife crime which made it to national TV here in the UK.

At 16 was also when I started to drink quite a lot. Every day I was drinking loads and it was making me feel worse.

Over the last 2 years I'd made my 4 bestfriends ever and I figured they'd be with me forever.

Danniie, Liam, Sammy & Gemma.

Danniie - She was my closest friend of all. She knew more about me than anyone else ever did and more than anyone else ever will know. She knew me better than I knew myself. I knew her just as well.

I ended up ruining the friendship permanently.

She got pregnant a little while after I knew her (it wasn't mine) and her fella had split up with her because he didn't want to look after a baby. All of her family gave up on her because they didn't want her to have the baby and I was her only true friend. I told her I'd be there for her whenever she needed me. No matter what I was doing, I'd stop it just to go to her. She needed me one night and I was being selfish by being in the pub getting drunk so I ignored her. I eventually had a go at her because I was drunk but because I'd already broken my promise, the friendship was already gone. While some others have said that she should've forgave me, I know she made the right decision because she needs to think about her baby and not be worried about whether I'd do the same again or not.

I've tried speaking to her plenty of times to get it sorted but it never happens. I hope more than anything else that maybe one day, we'll be friends again.

Liam - He was a very close friend of mine and my main drinking partner. We were so close because we were drinking most of the time, but even when we weren't we would help each other out with problems in life and still be close. We were basically brothers. He ruined that friendship because he ended up being a paedophile. As soon as I found out, I went to find him and had a fight with him. That was a year and a half ago and I haven't seen or spoke to him since.

Sammy - Me and her were also extremely close. Infact, we ended up dating for a little while. I wish we hadn't dated though because that's what ruined our friendship. After being extremely close friends at first, then going to dating we always knew there would be a risk of ruining the friendship, but we went for it anyway.

Everything was great at first but then we started getting stressed and arguing loads and it never got better. The friendship was majorly broken by that point but the good news is that these days, we speak now and again and it seems friendly enough :)

Gemma - Gemma is the only one of those 4 who is still in my life now. She's been here for me all the way through and I've always been there for her. She's the most amazing person ever and now me and her are closer friends than ever and I'm happier than ever that me and her are still bestfriends.

If you look in the thread to post pics of ourselves, see my first post in there and you'll see me with Gemma.

One final thing to say, at the start of this year, I almost died from how much I was drinking. On average, I was drinking 20-25 pints of lager and a litre of vodka every day. I was drinking that much for about 4 months, so I was lucky that I actually survived.

I was told that if I carried on drinking so much, I'd be dead within 2-5 years.

The scariest thing is that I wasn't going to stop. It was just when I got drunk one night and accidentally told my mum that I was dying. When I woke up the next morning, I remembered how upset she was and knew that I couldn't carry on so I stopped for a couple of months. Since then I just drink now and again.

I told you all it would be a life story ;)

I'd just like to say, I'm sorry to those of you who aren't English and can't read English very well. I couldn't have told the story of my life if I'd told it any other way :)