This is Not for You reveals a childhood of raw encounters with drug abuse and mental illness. This is Not for You is a memoir which vividly describes the memories of growing up in a dysfunctional environment and how these circumstances developed a spirit within the narrator. This is a story of resiliency and drive to overcome the extreme adversities that addiction and poverty can create in the life of a young child.
Venus Soileau is a graduate of University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Her childhood experiences led her to become an advocate for children. After leaving home she became a foster parent to her sister and later became an advocate for other children in foster care. After starting a career in education she was honored as the Lafayette Parish Middle School Teacher of the Year in 2012. Today she continues to work with students as a middle school teacher. She resides in Lafayette Parish with her husband and three children.
My memories come to me in segments. It was important that I put them down for my readers the way I experience them, like scenes in a movie.
Book Excerpt
This is Not for You
Like a slide in a movie projector waiting to be pulled, my mind flips to the most vivid memory I have of Abbeville. I was sick from school, lying on the bottom bunk when my mom knelt beside me. For a second I thought she was coming to touch my forehead, to see if I needed anything like the moms I’d seen on the Tylenol commercials. Instead, she pushed her hair behind her ear and spoke the words I couldn’t believe,
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