Nathaniel Laurence

He was born on Nov. 21, 1992. His family was financially well-to-do and lived in a nice apartment in downtown Vancouver, until his parents, Joseph and Martha, split when he was just under six years old. After the ensuing bitter legal battle, Martha was granted full custody. Joseph moved away for work. She remarried and had two daughters with her new husband, David. Nate was too young at the time to understand what was really going on, but he came to despise his mother for removing his father from his life and replacing him with a stranger.

Nate lived with Martha, David, and his two half-sisters in the suburbs, as they did not have the financial means to stay in the city. Nate occasionally heard from Joseph via mail or phone, but these contacts grew fewer and further between with time. Eventually, he stopped hearing from his father entirely. The last he ever heard from Joseph was a card for his eighth birthday.

Nate essentially had the mindset of an only child, as there was too much difference in age for him to relate to his half-sisters. He was very bright and did well in school, but he was often picked on by his classmates as the teacher's pet. As he was already an introvert and struggled to make friends, the slings of the other students only served to drive him further into his shell. The few people who didn't heckle him, the closest thing to those he could call friends, were other social rejects like him.

Even worse, he often felt unappreciated at home. There was some truth in this, as he was not doted on the same way his half-sisters were, and there always remained an uncomfortable distance between Nate and his stepfather.

It was at this point that Nate really began to suffer from the isolation. As he grew older, he understood that he would not be hearing from Joseph again. When the sense of abandonment sunk in, he became deeply depressed, and angry at those he felt were responsible for turning his life into this - his mother, father, and stepfather most of all.

Desperately lacking the attention he needed to thrive, Nate began to act out. His grades plummeted, and he was written up numerous times for fights and vandalism. By the time he neared the end of high school, he had a juvenile record including several arrests. He often got into arguments and fights with David at home, which only worsened the tension in their fragile family.

Nate barely managed a C- average, and the day after he graduated, David and Martha kicked him out to fend for himself. Now, truly, everyone he had known had abandoned him. For over a year, he drifted from job to job, roof to roof. Sometimes no job. Sometimes no roof. That was, until the day one of his former middle school teachers came into the place where he worked and recognized him.

He had been Nate's favorite teacher back then, and he had watched out for Nate like few others did about his being bullied. Remembering the bright young man full of promise that Nate once was, this retired teacher helped Nate clean himself up and put his life back together.

It was difficult for Nate to face his fears and reintegrate into society in a normal fashion, but with the encouragement, he slowly worked his way back up. Fortunately for Nate, although he had been in many fights, there were never any serious charges filed - after all, he was usually the one defending himself - and his juvenile record had been cleared. The following fall, Nate enrolled in university through a work-study program.