Chapter 1: On the Ouside, Looking In.

My name is Aspen Gale. I have lived long enough to grow into ambition, though I would say that my life is beginning just now. My past is just that - the past, and I do not wish to be lumped into the stereotype of my origin. My parents were poor - white trash, most would say. My father was a trucker, and my mother was a lot lizard making money where she could. I do not believe they were meant to be together, and I'm honestly not certain that there was ever a day that they loved each other. But they cared for me each in their own way, though my father was often gone and my mother was often too drunk to notice her son.

Still, I hold them no ill will. In their situation they each did the best that they could, and at least I can say that I knew who my father was... there are many who can not. But I digress, and will leave it known that my childhood was no worse than many, and I never went hungry, and I was never struck. That is more than I can say for many of the kids who grew up in our trailer park.

I did not have the intellect for school - not to say that I was stupid, but I had to struggle and work hard to pass almost every class. I knew that higher education was not for me, but I had a dream of becoming a self made man by other means. What I lacked in smarts, I would make up for in drive and dedication, and I would see that my name would become known in Starlight Shores. I was not content to let myself sink into the despair of poverty, and the trailer park lifestyle.

I was a kid who dreamed. Not the fluffy dreams of a child who knew nothing of life, but the sort of dreams that grew into plans and actions. I had a paper route, and worked after school at a nearby boarding ranch, mucking out stalls and tending to horses whose rich owners visited them rarely. I fell in love with these magnificent creatures, and learned about their care, and about what made a good line, and what qualities to look for in a racer or a show animal. And I saved every nickel and dime that I scraped together, hoarded every tip, squirreled away every dirty penny I found laying on the ground - and hid it from my mother. Every bit of it was going to pay for my dream.

When I graduated from Gooder Public High School, my parents were not at the ceremony. My father was out on a route, and mother was home passed out. Afterwards, I came home to gather up my few belongings and the money I had been hoarding for so long. I kissed mom's forehead goodbye, tucked 500 simoleons underneath her arm, and set out to seek my dream.

I would no longer be on the outside of the life I wanted, looking in.

It was as if I had taken my first breath.

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