Neil Hilborn, through his poem “Joey”, tells the story of himself and his childhood friend. Both their similarities and differences were integral in sculpting the people they were and the people they would become in the future. Both had depression as teenagers and this affected their friendship in various ways. Hilborn describes all the ways in which he helped Joey. He bought him lunch, he gave him rides, he played video games with him. However, he also owns up to all the ways he witnessed Joey’s inner turmoil and did not help him. He insulted him when Joey tried to discuss his depression with someone else around, he caught Joey looking at his family’s gun safe, he did not get a reason for why Joey wrapped his car around a tree. Both boys grew up and Joey eventually became a successful adult.
However, despite suffering from the same mental illness and having many shared experiences, Hilborn and Joey saw a very different upbringing. They had to live through their mental illness in very different ways as a result. Money, inevitably, dictated their experience with mental illness and the impact it held over their lives. There are countless kids in the world who are in the very same position as his childhood friend. They are suffering and have parents who love them, but can’t help them because they don’t have the money. These same children may never grow up to become healthy adults.
Money plays a more integral role in identity than it should. It may possess the ability to dictate if you ever have the chance to establish a future identity as well as dictate your present identity. Access to healthcare services may be denied to some people based on their monetary income. As a result, it may be a struggle to accomplish all that they are capable of or pursue a healthy lifestyle. Without proper care, it is all too easy for people to become their illness instead of themselves. Having money can determine where you are going to go in life or if you are going to progress further at all to establish an identity as an adult. It is disappointing that many people are at a disadvantage due to something as insignificant and merely a tangible artifact as money. Money means that some people can live through who they were, but some people cannot and their identity is lost.
