I'm about to move into my first apartment (hence why I posted a bit ago about cheap furniture), and can't help but feel like I finally made it. I'm sorry if this is a sappy post, but everyone should be proud of how far they've come.
Anyway, I grew up dirt poor in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Tennessee, around a lot of drugs and abuse. My town, a little under a decade ago, was declared the sixth poorest community in the nation with a population over 1,000. I know what sleep tastes like. I know what the cold feels like underneath three torn blankets. I know what it feels like to get everything done before the sun sets, because the entire house has been dark for seven days. I know the power of a dollar. Ten bucks in 2002 and ten bucks in 2018 are two very different things, but I was raised with the mindset that ten dollars was the difference between freezing/starving another night.
I know what it feels like to be bullied for wearing the same clothes four days in a row. I know what it feels like to watch your parents' marriage fall apart because of poverty, alcohol, and drugs. I know what it feels like to be lucky enough to be picked up from school while the other kids in my community were left there for hours, waiting on someone whose names they can't remember to get them and drop them off at mama's house.
I'm now 20, junior studying computer science (first generation), ~740 credit score, just hit $3,000 in my savings account, two jobs, no kids but a rescue dog sitting at my feet. I broke the chain and am making something of myself. People can make fun of me for choosing the $3.00 option over the $4.00 any day, but I go to sleep at night knowing that I'm not doing too shabby.
March 10, 2018 at 04:33PM
