My experience as a TTI survivor. Part six. Life after the program.

When I returned home from the program it felt such a relief but, unfortunately, my relief was short lived. My dad told me not to get settled in because I would soon be going to a two year long residential program. He told me that the only reason I hadn’t been sent straight from wilderness to residential was because they had to wait afew weeks for someone else to finish at the residential program for there to be a place for me. He told me that I could expect another visit from the transporters.

Afew days later, while my dad was out, my mom told me to pack quickly as we were leaving. She said that she’d had enough and I certainly would not be going to another program. We stayed briefly with a friend of my mom and then we moved to the UK. My mom is actually from the UK. We stayed briefly with my mom’s uncle until we found a place of our own.

Since we moved to the UK life has been great. I love how much later school starts here. All that extra sleep feels so good. I’ve also made lots of new friends including an adorable girlfriend called Andrea.

My mom and dad are now divorced. Mom has found a new man. His name is Jake and he’s a really cool guy. They are getting married in August and I’m looking forward to having him as my stepdad.

My dad has since apologised to me for sending me to the wilderness program and admitted it was a bad decision. I’ve accepted his apology and we are back on speaking terms. I saw him when he visited the UK and he did seem to be making an effort to be better.

I’ve decided that I want to one day train as a child psychologist. Because I’ve been through so much trauma and so much bad stuff I want to be able to help other kids who have been through bad stuff.