We’re just so accustomed to having a gun wherever you go it’s been so bad for so long. When I was a kid, growing up around all of this was hard. Read more: The Complex Dynamic Between ‘Violence Interrupters’ and Police In the immediate aftermath, I wanted revenge but I was just thinking, “what are you living for if you’re going to retaliate?” I had to really stop fixating on it and just move on. Seeing my son every day got me through it too.

My brothers were checking in on me and bringing me things that I needed. Part of what got me through was my family. This type of incident makes you think about your family and your kids. He’s a very affectionate kid, he’s always kissing me and he shows a lot of love. I wanted to make sure I was around him I couldn’t imagine not being here for him. He made a full recovery-though he still has a bullet lodged in his neck. I went to the hospital that my friend was at to make sure he was okay too. But I still have little sharp pains in my leg sometimes when I make a slight wrong move or something like that, I feel it a little bit. I was discharged from the hospital later that night-I walked out in my gown. The Henry County Police Department did not respond to TIME’s request for comment regarding the incident.) (In the months since the shooting, no arrests have been made to Griffin’s knowledge. You shouldn’t have to go through things like that. A lot of us young people think this is the norm. These are experiences that you go through being where I’m from-being from Atlanta, being from the hood, period. I knew they didn’t believe me but there was nothing I could do about that.

I kept telling them I didn’t know why the guys broke into the house. They kept asking me the same questions-“do you know who broke in?” and “why did they break in?”-over and over. In the hospital, the police treated me like I was a suspect.

You have affected me