by Angel08

Created on: September 17, 2008

When I was younger I realized things were a lot different for me then the other kids my age. I didn't understand that poverty is what separated us. I lived in a single parent home and was the only child. My mom had given birth to me when she was only 17.

I remember finding my mom in the kitchen crying over a pile of bills that needed to be paid with money we didn't have. I also noticed that my school had sent a supply list for the coming school year. I hated this time of year my mom was always so stressed. After paying for the necessities we barely had a cent to our name. Now we had to spend even more money just for me to have the basic supplies and some clothes to wear to school as well as paying the school fees.

I hugged my mom and told her that I didn't need any clothes that I had plenty. I knew it was a lie. My closet only contained clothes covered in holes or that I could no longer fit. She smiled at me and told me not to worry we would just have to buy a few things here and there. We would often go to discount stores or get our clothes second hand. I constantly got teased for not having brand names or clothes that weren't fashionable. Unfortunately that was out of my control.

By the time dinner would roll around and I would sit in the kitchen watching my mom repeatedly open the cupboards and the door to the fridge almost as if she thought something new would be there the next time. Finally she decided on a box of Kraft dinner. We had no milk or butter so we used water. I noticed my mom never ate very much and she would always put some aside for me to have for lunch or dinner the next day. Sometimes if we were lucky we were able to get to the food bank and get a little extra food. Unfortunately like most of the stuff we could afford it lacked any nutritional value. It was common for us to eat Kraft dinner and ichiban.

Rationing was a common practice for us. Shampoo, toilet paper, toothpaste, it was all carefully used. If we had run out we would have to wait for her next check at the end of the month. Even then there wasn't a guarantee we would have enough money to buy it.
We never had a car; bus was our main source of transportation. I remember many times we would scavenge around the house for lose change. We would check in and under the couch, look in the piggy banks and pockets of jackets and clothing. When I got sick I would try my best to hide it. I didn't want my mom to have to worry about getting medicine and taking the two buses to get to the doctors office.

Now that I am older I look back on my childhood. I may not have been extremely well off but I consider myself lucky. I have a mother that would do anything for me and who for 18 years put me before her without any form of resentment. She did everything in her power to make sure I had everything I needed and did her best to provide me with things I wanted. I now know that I was extremely lucky. I live in Canada. I didn't have to worry about being in a third world nation without clean water, proper shelter or fear war. I also had family who even though limited in their resources has tried to help us any way they could. If you look at it in terms of money, yes we were poor. If you look at it in terms of the people who loved us I consider us rich.

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