Early on in life I learned that in the world there were two types of people, the haves, and have-nots. I grew up as a have not. I wore lots of secondhand clothes, got free lunches at school and grew up without many luxury items my friends were accustomed to. As a kid, I understood we weren't wealthy but I don't think I always realized how tough times really were.
My parents were very hard working people. My father was a blue-collar worker in many industrial jobs and my mother was a front desk clerk in the office of my elementary and middle school. The advantage to my mom working for the school system was that my mom had the same hours as me, thus my family was able to completely cut the cost of child care. There were also many times my mother would take on second, even third jobs just so we would have the money to keep the lights on.
I vividly remember Christmas 1998. I wanted a Nintendo 64 so bad I could taste it. All of my friends had them, so I only got to play when I visited their houses. On Christmas morning, I rushed to the living room to see what Santa had left for me. Under the tree was a brand new Nintendo 64. Santa Claus had to be real because I knew there was no way my parents could afford that. I still don't know how they were able to pull that off with our income at the time.
When my parents split up, times got even tougher. I stayed with my mother during the period of my parents divorce more than I went to my dad's. My mom was still working at my school and was clearing $900 a month. That $900 was spread very thinly between utilities, the mortgage payments, and food. My mother went through a period where we ate Ramen noodles every day for over a year because it was what we could afford. That period of time was also at the height of popularity for the reality TV show "Survivor." The cast members on the show had a diet that mostly consisted of rice and my mom suggested, as a game, that we eat rice when we watched the show. I didn't realize we were doing this because all we could afford was rice and Ramen.
My home had a broken air conditioner that we couldn't afford to repair. This might not have been bad in some places, however, we lived in Georgia. We never turned down invitations to friends houses in the summer because of they almost always meant a free meal and air conditioning. We also utilized public places such as the library, the mall and various other stores that we could go to during the hottest points of the day.
Even though I grew up poor, I feel like I gained a lot from the experience. I learned things from being poor that I'm not sure if I could have fully understood or appreciated had I grown up wealthy. Both of my parents were extremely hard workers but neither one of them had college degrees until much later. Watching how hard they worked and how they were limited by not having a diploma taught me exactly why I had to go to college. The Christmas I got my Nintendo 64, I appreciated it more than other kids that got things like that at every major holiday. To this day I won't eat Ramen because I grew to hate it as a kid but it made me appreciate the fact that I was getting a meal because my mom had figured out how to budget so I wouldn't starve. Living in a house that didn't have air conditioning taught me to want more and dream bigger.
I appreciate my family's struggle. The struggle I grew up with taught me how to be resourceful and appreciative of the things I have. I learned excellent survival skills as a child that most people learn the hard way as adults. Growing up poor also taught me to have hope; that things can and always will get better. Watching my mother work as hard as she did to make ends meet and keep life comfortable for me taught me a very important lesson. You are NOT defined by the amount of money in your bank account, the clothes you wear or the car you drive.
