Hard Times, Y'all

It's so difficult for me to live with my stepdad being the only parent in the house! It's not that he's difficult to live with or anything (as he pointed out to me yesterday). It's just that he's so difficult to figure out. With my mom I have an understanding of exactly what's expected out of me. She is also very easy to understand, as I've had a fairly strong relationship with her for the past sixteen years. But my stepdad is a little questionable...

Sometimes he lies and the one thing that I lose all respect for is a liar! So, it's already pretty tough for me to respect him. However, I treat him with respect at all times because he's my parent and also much older than me. He also tends to alter his behavior around certain people, which utterly confuses me about who the heck he really is! I feel like I'm living with a stranger almost and it's very frustrating!

Lastly, I feel like my stepdad is attempting to be my friend, rather than my authority figure sometimes. And then when he decides to be the authority figure, I'm not really sure how to handle that...

I'm not saying that I'm a perfect child. Clearly, I've been making some pretty big mistakes for me to end up on punishment. But things have been changing so much for me lately... My mom is living seven hundred seventy-nine miles away from me for the first time in my entire life! I just got my license a couple months ago and my very first job. And not only that, but I've started my junior school year as a full IB student... With my stepdad, there's plenty of freedom as long as I let him know first.. But it's really hard for me to respect someone who seems to be so shallow as an authority figure....

*Shrugs*

Prayers, guys... It'd be really nice right now.