Chapter 1 "Mom and Dad"

My parents are Bradley Scott Sparks and Trudy Lee Taylor. They met when my mom's family moved into the house next to my Grandfather, Kenny Sparks' feed store in Stanford, which is a not-even-a-town  located on Highway 45 in Monroe County Indiana.

I have mixed feelings about my parents. Take my Dad for instance. He was raised a farmer's son. He got expelled from Eastern Greene County High School for selling pot out of his truck in the school parking lot. When he was working for his Dad at the feed store, he would pocket money at the register and even take from the damn thing.

He was also a schmuck. Like me. He was the kind of idiot who would hold a girl's jacket and purse for her while she danced with some other guy. In the early days of he and my mom knowing each other, he would pose as her date to her parents and pick her up, then take her to meet her real date. He would cover for her, and stir up trouble for himself, to get my mom out of it. The fucking retard. He wanted to be with her so bad, he didn't care how he got it. Whatever capacity, as long as she was included. It didn't matter if she brought her date along with her, she was there. Dad, you pathetic loser.

I guess in the end it didn't matter. Eventually they started dating. Even though he couldn't hold a job. Even though he had been expelled from school. In Mom's own words, "He knew how to have fun. And he always had good weed."

So the facade became a reality and they were dating. For the record my Mom still has a soft spot in her heart for him. She says he was her best friend. She went with him because in the end she felt like he was the safest choice. Boy was she wrong. She got pregnant maybe a year after. She was 17 at the time. She did finish high school though. I give her that. They got married to much protest from Grandma Rita but she relented and allowed it.

A lot of their relationship and time together I have no idea about. So, please don't think that I do. A lot of it is mostly what Mom's told me and let's face it, she's biased. And since Scott, Dad, whatever, hasn't offered any details or his side, I can only assume it's all true. He didn't get arrested for selling drugs because Grandma Helen Sparks worked at the courthouse and got him out of it. He got kicked out of the National Guard because of cocaine. Even though they had two babies he wouldn't keep a job and when he did have money he spent it on blow, weed, and military paraphernalia. That's why she dumped his ass two (or three?) different times before it stuck and they were split up. They were together a total of about 4 years.

They were together long enough for me and my brother to be born and that's about it. Mom says in the end, the bad times with him outweighed the good. She couldn't trust him, or rely on him anymore. She resented him and couldn't stand to be around him anymore. A resentment that was felt by at least one of her sons.

That's all I have to say about that at the moment. I'll tell you more about Dad and more about Mom later.

The next chapter I'll be telling you about the early years. How I was born, and what went on during the first five years of my existence.

Hello...

This is the first post of my auto-biographical blog. This post is to tell you about this project, and give you an idea of what to expect.

My name is Travis Lee Sparks.

Just the facts...

I am 28.

I have spent 3 years in prison.

I have spent 5 years being homeless.

I have never been married and I have no children.

I can count the number of people I truly consider a friend on one hand.

In preparing for this autobiography, I have asked myself what to include and what not to include. In the end, I've decided to tell EVERYTHING. Starting with how my parents met, what they went through, and why they divorced, as well as the circumstances of my birth. I will end up with my current day life. Along the way I will include pictures, as well as a scanned PDF copy of the Treatment Plan I did while I was in Westville's Therapeutic Community. I will also give shout outs to the people who matter most to me (Mom, Will, Ashley) and explain why they matter to me. I'm sure the truth will surprise them. Then again, maybe not. I will tell how I really feel about everything I've ever been through, and what was going through my mind at the time.

There are some people who are going to be very unhappy with some of the things I post. And YES I will name names. To those people, all I have to say is, you have no one to blame but yourself. You were the one who did what you did.

I hope this blog sheds some light on what kind of person I really am. Ultimately, you will draw your own conclusions and form your own opinions. Did I fuck up along the way? Of course. Do I wish I could have done some things differently? Yes. Do I blame anyone for what I've been through? Absolutely. Myself.

This is my story. My confession. My life. This is Me.

I am Travis Lee Sparks.