I grew up in an unconventional family. I was born to unwed teenage parents, who subsequently split up when I was 4 years old. Not too much later, I was introduced to the woman who would become my stepmother for the next ten years and the kids who would become my stepsister and stepbrother. My mom dated for a while and eventually ended up with someone else too. Neither of those relationships lasted and my parents once again moved on to someone else, meaning new siblings. In total, I now count 10 (soon to be 11) siblings.
I grew up in a small town of "rednecks," raised by my father on a small "farm." We had chickens, cows, goats, horses, pigs, and other animals over the years. I went to a small school that I would eventually graduate from as Valedictorian.
I had a decent childhood. I never knew how much we were struggling. Eventually, I understood that we weren't rich. My friends were getting the latest toys and were always going on trips. My siblings and I had to share what we had and never went on family vacations. That never bothered me too much though. I was happy with my family and what we did have. As I became a teenager though, I realized even more of the problems. The family secrets, the arguing, the alcohol in some cases, and other things. I won't get too detailed because it is all very personal, but it all made me stronger.
As I was reading "Hillbilly Elegy," a memoir by J.D. Vance (that I have reviewed on my personal blog), it made me think about the culture of a dysfunctional family like mine, as well as what he calls "hillbilly culture," and what I call "redneck culture" (the only difference is the region). He discusses the difficulties and relationships within his family. His family had a lot more visceral problems than mine.
His family struggled with drug addiction, his father was sporadically in his life, he witnessed domestic violence, and he was a victim of child abuse. The culture itself had a lot of "we handle our problems ourselves and don't involve the law," which is exactly how I was raised.
In turn, this lifestyle toughened him to society, pushed him into the Marines, and eventually into Yale Law School where he had to balance his new life with what was ingrained in him. I held his story close to my heart.
I have defied the odds, according to a lot of people. For me, it seems a bit weird to say that. Nevertheless, I am a first-generation college student, who graduated high school as Valedictorian, who started her own nonprofit, and who plans to go to law school in order to become a prosecuting attorney.
I want to fix the system that created hillbilly culture. If you decide to read the memoir, you will understand this better, but basically the majority of hillbillies or white people in the lower middle-class bracket (which my family is) feel betrayed by the government and by the "richer" people in general and they blame them but then they never do anything about it.
I want to help change that idea. I want to help develop a new social and economic construct for hillbilly culture to move forward.
