Tomorrow is Mother's day.

Every year this time feels a bit weird to me. People who see my posts on socials may imagine my life is a dream. What most of them don't know is that I'm not the type of person to share personal issues. It's been almost a year since I've been welcomed in this space, so it is time to get to know each other a little better.

Family is something you can see in a lot of my work. There are reasons for that.

I grew up in a broken family. My father wasn't in the picture for the first 12 years, and my mother struggled with mental health issues and addictions. She was violent and so was the stepfather I had later on.

Violence occurred daily, for years. As a child, I was unable to defend myself. I grew up full of guilt because when one is too young to understand adult violence, they tend to think it is all their fault, that somehow they deserve it. It took me years to understand that I did nothing wrong.

I left home at 17, without a penny and my head full of demons. I became a user for a long time, while playing in a punk rock band. Few years down the road, I managed to stop drinking and get away from the drugs. Since then, I’ve built a career taking care of people and animals through my work.

I often say the ocean saved my life. I really mean it, as it was my only getaway from all of this. It was (and still is) my wonderland, a place where I could stop thinking for a few hours and escape

My mother died from alcoholism ten years ago. We hadn’t spoken since I left home.

l don’t know how I feel about it.

While most people would see this image as a representation of a mother’s love, to me it shows a child choosing to reach for the light, as his mother choose to follow a darker path.