Most kids get to just be kids, but Nathan Parker’s life has been way different.
While most of us are worried about video games or sports, he was dealing with stuff that’s actually serious.
It didn’t get easier either.
When he was two his dad left him.
“My mom struggled as we lived together in Kellogg by ourselves,” Parker said.
At the age of eight, Nathan moved to Denilin, Florida. He said he felt separated because he was spending a lot of time with his grandparents and he didn’t feel at home.
Two and a half years later he and his mom moved to Rathdrum, Idaho.
By the age of ten, his mom decided that she didn’t want to take care of him and his grandparents stepped up and took care of him.
His grandparents raised and shaped him into the person he is today.
“When my grandparents decided to adopt me I was very excited after not being around them a lot in the past year or two, but without them taking me in and raising me, I wouldn’t have become the person I am today,” Parker said.
He felt that he was back at home as he was reunited with his family, like he was where he was supposed to be.
His grandparents shaped him to be a nice, caring, and funny person.
He said he had to quickly mature and figure out who he was going to be. He didn’t really have a choice. He had to grow up right then and there.
When you ask him what the hardest thing he ever went through was, he doesn’t say a hard test or a breakup. He says it was “not having parents growing up.”
A lot of people would probably just give up if that happened to them, but he used it to define himself.
Today, he enjoys riding dirt bikes and spending time with friends.
No matter the challenges Parker went through, he overcame them and became a better person.