Turning from a life of drugs and drinking is never easy, but junior Jesse Servin was able to accomplish just that before seriously hurting himself or those around him. Servin was born in Stockton. He lived with his father, mother and half-brother. When Servin was eight years old, his mother left his father. Servin and his mother had to move from place to place, fearing that his father might follow them to take him away from his mother. "I was too young to know what was going on, so it [the divorce] didn't really have an effect on me," Servin said. "I didn't really care." When Servin was nine, his mother remarried. Servin got along well with his step-father, and the pair established a strong mutual relationship. Before Servin and his mother left his father, his father enrolled him in school early, but since his birthday fell late in the year he was the smallest in his grade. Servin experienced taunting and teasing, and frequently got into fights. After fourth grade, Servin's mother pulled him out and enrolled him at Oakwood Elementary School, where he repeated the fourth grade. In fifth grade, Servin and a friend decided to start a gang. Each member was beaten up for initiation, and the group, DTC - Driving Teachers Crazy - terrorized the school ground. "I don't even know why we made up the gang," Servin said. "We were just stupid and naïve - we didn't know what we were doing." When Servin was eleven, his friend introduced him to marijuana. The pair stole nearly $500 from the friend's foster mother and created an elaborate plan to run away and never return. Despite the gang activities, Servin was optimistic his sixth grade year. "I hated my teacher at first," Servin said. "We just didn't get along. But then he came to me and asked me to help him lead the class, and I realized that I could trust him." The teacher was aware of Servin's family problems and tried to help as much as possible, through conversation and enrolling him in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) pull-out program. After leaving Oakwood and entering Delta Sierra, the gang split up and eventually ceased to exist, as did the constant fights. Servin was lucky to have left the gang activity. His friend, the fellow gang-founder, was later shot and paralyzed from the neck down. Middle school were the trying years. Servin started to smoke marijuana regularly, nearly three times a day. "I smoked [marijuana] on the way to school, at lunch, and on my way home from school," Servin said. In seventh grade, Servin and a friend noticed some tapes at Tower Records that they wanted to steal. What the pair did not notice, however, was that an undercover policeman was watching them. The policeman followed them outside and then pulled them inside to call their parents. "Seventh and eighth grade were just a blur to me," Servin said. In eighth grade, Servin was caught drinking vodka with two friends in class. When someone told, Servin was suspended for five days while the rest of the class was lectured for the next two hours. Trouble did not end at school. When Servin returned home, his mother attacked him. "She was just yelling at me and started slapping me," Servin said. "I tried to walk away, but she jumped on my back. I had to pick her up and set her down. I had never seen her like that. I realized that what I was doing was not only hurting me, but also those around me." After the vodka incident, Servin decided that he was ready for a change. "I was tired of looking over my shoulder, of having to watch my words," Servin said. "I was just tired of the paranoia." Servin's grandmother convinced him to go to church. He became a leader in his church's youth group, and was recently Christian Club president. "God really helped me," Servin said. "It was the feeling I got when I went to church. Just the feeling of repenting - I was crying. I liked that feeling much better than the paranoia and having to watch over my shoulder." In July 1999, Servin's mother left his step-father and hid from them both until recently. Servin decided to stay with his step-father. "I felt that my step-father's place was the most stable place that I could be," Servin said. Servin's mother was jealous of his relationship with his step-father, and did not tell him her whereabouts because she feared that he would tell his step-father. "It was like a conspiracy," Servin said. "Everyone I knew and trusted lied to me about my mom. She could be down the street talking to me on the phone, but would tell me that she was in another city. I really lost trust in her." She is now staying with relatives. Servin does not attend church as often as he used to, but credits the church with his turnaround from drugs. "If I had continued doing drugs, I think it could have turned into a problem," Servin said. "I just didn't know what I was doing. I'm just glad I got this out of my system early." Servin, despite his somewhat troubled past, has an optimistic look for his future. "Honestly, right now I'm the strongest I've ever been," Servin said. "I'm the most individual I've ever been. When my mom and step-dad split up, it made me realize that I had to be myself. I see now the quality and real meaning behind things, and that every decision I face is mine and only mine."