When you see a teen with dark circles around their eyes, you may assume they’re tired. You never ask yourself why they may be up late. When you see a teen with bruises, you think they were probably just goofing off or playing sports. When a teen begins struggling, or stays struggling with school work, you assume they just don’t care about school.

Many people are only outsiders looking in. They do not know the teen with dark circles is tired because they cried themselves to sleep again. They do not understand the teen with the bruises is being abused, not goofing off or getting them from just sports. They do not realize that with so many things going on at home, it is much more difficult to stay focused on school.

A broken home is defined by a house containing a family that is set apart due to tensions and certain problems. Each scenario is different, and each home holds a different story. Coming from a broken home can leave one with a skewed perspective of reality. This can be due to the use of drugs at home, an immediate family member dying, abuse by an immediate family member, or divorce.

The publications advisor, Pedro Cabrera, once said in a class conversation, “your perspective of reality is based on your experience.”

Coming from a broken up can completely alter one’s reality. Unsurprisingly, many victims of broken homes will not open up to say that they are from a broken home. These victims may claim that they always feel alone and that they feel they always will be. While they try to keep what’s going on at home, at home, it forever remains on their mind.

“Other people have it harder than their friends, and they do what they can to try to cover it up,” junior Kadyn Lagunas said.

In an article on LoveIsRespect.org, it gives many examples of things to look for and true meaning of these forms of abuse. Emotional abuse includes behaviors such as threats, insults, constant monitoring such as “checking in”, excessive texting, humiliation, intimidation, isolation, and even stalking. Physical abuse is any form of intentional and unwanted contact with you or something close to your body. Sexual abuse refers to any action that pressures or persuades someone to do something sexual or provocative that they don’t want to do.

“My experience was about five or six years,” Lagunas said.

Abuse can be very subtle. Many of those who experience abused may not realize that it is happening. More so, many who are victims of abuse are so blind that it may be coming from someone who is a family member, or a close friend. Sadly, because of the horrid masterminds behind domestic abuse, it can be happening longer than most victims realize. However, there are some victims who do know what’s going on.

Another characteristic that may cause a broken home is divorce. A home that has to go through the long, dragged out, process of divorce is exhausting and overwhelming. The teen has to learn to accept that the divorce is not their fault. There was nothing they could’ve done to prevent it from happening. For the teen it becomes a constant struggle to accept that.

“It was an obstacle that I had to get around,” junior Gabriela Hurtado said. “As I got older, I realized it wasn’t my fault.”

Divorce can change everything in someone’s life. The parents who file for the divorce are filled with hatred and distrust in any future relationships due to the fact that no one ever marries someone thinking they’ll be divorced one day. The real victims of divorce are the kids. It doesn’t matter if they’re little kids, teenagers, or grown adults, the idea of parents not being together anymore is heart breaking.

“I’ve had to learn how to not have both of my parents and to rely mostly on my grandma,” Lagunas said. “I still rely on my step father because he is my dad and he raised me. However, at the end of the day, it’s not the same. It never will be.”

As big of a strain divorce can be, teens often claim that if they could change anything, they wouldn’t. They have no regrets and completely accept that the divorce made them who they are. It is a part of them. These teens work hard to become successful in life, but they never forget their roots.

“The past is the past. It’s not something I feel embarrassed about. I wouldn’t change anything about my past,” Hurtado said.

These victims are few of many. Although sometimes they may feel alone, they aren’t.