For as long as I can remember, my existence and my identity have always been intertwined with one word: poverty. Every day, I walk to school carrying with me both the tangible and intangible afflictions of poverty, and every day, as I walk home to my crimson stained apartment, all I see are the anguished faces of my parents who have been clobbered by the long hours of work just to provide food and shelter. Theoretically, poverty stacks the odds against me and my family. But empirically, there is something beautifully majestic that illuminates from poverty: an overwhelming awareness that only poverty bestows. In my perspective, poverty can be decomposed into two separate definitions, one literal and the other, figurative. The literal is simply …show more content…
After all, why else would my hardworking parents be subjected to slave-like working conditions? I became a hopeless shell with no gaps or openings for illumination. At times my inner consciousness would try to bring up empty clichés, such as “Life gets better” or “don’t give up”, that were quickly dispelled upon the visualization of my family’s toil. However, little did I know that the events that would soon transpire would forever shatter my dystopian view, a mere cursory illusion, of …show more content…
She said faintly that “the surgery would cost more than half my lifetime earnings”. I tried to alleviate my mother’s pain as she was suffering from a severe mental breakdown, and I urged her to rest up the following day instead of working. I could see the pain and hesitation of my mother, but she knew well enough that she was an emotional wreck not capable of surviving a long day’s work, so she agreed. After seeing her hesitation, which was essentially poverty in disguise, I spent days futilely looking for a job in hope of alleviating my parent’s financial burdens; however, my search came to a temporary close two weeks later when my mother brokenheartedly announced that her father had died just the day prior. Though brokenhearted, I knew that early immersion in the work field would be the quintessential way to combat extreme cases of poverty like what had just transpired, so I called many different companies and restaurants that were hiring until I came across the restaurant China Garden. Though I was rejected, due to my young age, from a full-paying job, the employer did give me the opportunity to intern alongside him. This initial internship gave rise to other opportunity of immersion in the work field, such as babysitting and even my volunteering service at the public