There is a video going around where these teens are lining up for a race and the man in charge of the race is giving $100 to whoever wins. Everyone is ready and ready to win that $100 dollar bill. However, before he starts he makes statements to the kids and if the statements apply to them, they are allowed to take two steps forward and if they don't, they stay at the starting line.
The statements he made were:
Take two steps forward if both of your parents are still married.
Take two steps forward if you grew up with a father figure in the home.
Take two steps forward if you had access to a private education.
Take two steps forward if you had access to a free tutor growing up.
Take two steps forward if you never had to worry about your cell phone being shut off.
Take two steps forward if you never had to help mom or dad with the bills.
Take two steps forward if it wasn't because of your athletic ability, you don't have to pay for college.
Take two steps forward if you never wondered where your next meal was going to come from.
The man then tells the kids in the front to look back and see the other kids who are behind them by a few steps or more and at the kids still at the finish line. He says that the statements have nothing to do with their decisions are what they have done but the people in the front have a better chance at winning that $100 because of their ability to access that head start and regardless, everyone still has to run their race in life.
I rewound the video and imagined myself racing and if any of the statements applied to me and I found that none of them did. I was hurt and appalled.I meant, I have a dad and he's a great dad but he wasn't always there while I grew up and if I remember on my own, I don't really see him all that much until I became an adult.
My parents are divorced, I went to public school and wondered how I was going to pay lunch when my mom couldn't even afford $0.45, let alone dinner. As I got older and made my own money, I helped my mom out if needed whether it was the bills or not. I went without my cell phone for awhile cause my parents couldn't afford it at the time or when I paid for it on my own, I had to get food instead because it wasn't as important.
I didn't have a tutor, nor any athletic abilities at all. I was still at that starting line.
I rewound the video for a third time and watched the faced of those who were still at the starting line and my heart hurt for them as I saw them glance down as each statement went by and there they stayed at that starting line. Those kids were like me, I could see the pain as they watched their peers take two steps forward, two more steps forward and two more steps, some not even stopping at all.
The man then talked about some not knowing others' life stories and their races and I thought that to be true. I has asked my roommate if she watched the video and she said she did and I told her if I was in that race, I would have never moved from my spot at the starting line. She looked at me shocked and asked if I was serious and I nodded.
We have been roommates for a little over a year and there is still a lot she doesn't know about me. You don't know what anyone else if going through and once you do, it's important to understand where they're coming from and that not everybody has a head start in their race in life.