A tarp, glue and newspaper changed how I understood the world and the people living in it. When I was living in Shanghai, an organization set up a poverty simulation at my school. They provided us only with those three items. The tarp became our assigned “family” of five's home and the glue and newspaper became our income. Each "day" was about ten minutes, and we had to craft and sell as many bags from glue and newspaper as we could in order to earn money. Once each family had ten bags made, someone from each of the dozen families lined up to sell the bags to various people in the "market." We presented the products, but the entitled consumers forced us to our knees to show respect and to beg them to buy our bags. As the time in the day turned slim, the desperation for money was evident in the begging mobs. Some even began massaging the consumers just so they would pick their family's bags to buy. My family's home was taken away by the end of the first day because we couldn't pay our rent. Despite that, we had raised money for food and water, and continued working.

The next "day", our bags still weren’t selling, and we were at a loss of how else to support our family. We began stripping ourselves of our shoes, jewelry, jackets, anything we could sell to the market. Some people were even offered money for their organs. When I was offered to be bought as a wife, I didn’t hesitate. After my family had sacrificed all our material items, my body, and worked endless hours, we finally received enough to buy our home back and send one of our family members to school.

I didn't realize how hard I had been working until the simulation ended. Exhausted, I looked down at my gluey hands and dirty knees, and realized I hadn’t said a word to my family outside of discussing how we could get more money. This showed how consumed I was in trying to keep my family alive, and how it allowed no time to even to think of anything else. Despite all our work, we always seemed to only have enough to keep us standing for one more day until the work began again. This helped me realize how difficult the poverty cycle is to be broken.

So many people work extremely hard to produce a product that they are unable to sell. They then spend the little money they have on the necessities, only to then start another day working to survive. Time for leisure or even conversations are nearly eliminated, and working to live is the only concern. The rigidity of classes define their lives, and they are stuck in these conditions. Many fail to acknowledge the rights of these people to live meaningful lives where they don't have to think singularly about surviving. Being aware of this helped push me to actively empathize with those are stuck in this seemingly never ending struggle and help in any way I can. I can only hope my experience will similarly touch others.