The Dark Truth About Low Income Life that middle-class kids could not handle.

I learned that kids in some of these families have to help pay the bills. Learning that was

rough. Inconveniences for normal people, like parking tickets, a malfunctioning fridge, a flat tire,

these are potentially catastrophic for poor people with no financial cushions.

Malfunctioning fridge is not just a repair expense. It can take out a week's groceries with it.

It's not a joke. If I may, I grew up in the middle class until the recession of 2008.

That's when both parents lost their jobs and we went to food stamps. I realized that vacations weren't things we took every year.

Expensive toys couldn't be bought right then and there.

We were lucky to have three meals a day every day.

My parents lost the house and we still haven't gotten back to where we were,

but I do appreciate how hard my parents tried to provide everything for us.

I grew up poor. When I went to prom, a rich girl in one of my

classes gave me a dress. She knew my family's situation and just bought it to me in a bag a couple of

weeks before the dance. I hemmed it, cut off the sleeves, and I was at home the day of the prom

doing my hair, makeup and nails myself. It shocked me that all the other girls were at

salons. I was a punk and wore band teas and combat boots usually. I showed up to the prom

looking really good. Everyone was shocked, and the principal even came over to me and commented

on how I looked. I hated almost everyone at my school, but that night I felt like I belonged.

I could share my experiences growing up poor too, like eating two pieces of bread with just mustard and ketchup on it for dinner. Or when my mum would beg the water company for just a few more days to come up with the money for the bill, but they'd shut off our water anyway. We'd use bottled water to bathe and brush our teeth. I'm what you'd call well off now, and I appreciate the heck out of everything I have, and how far I've come. I'm glad that I grew up the way I did. I think it made me a better person. I'm not pretentious or judgmental, and I love helping other people out, because I can now. I'm really late to this, but here it goes. I didn't realize that some kids had to work to help their

family pay the bills. I realized this at military boot camp. I joined the military because I failed out

of college, the first go round. My bunkmate got his first paycheck and told me how excited he was

to send it to his parents so that they could pay that electricity bill. I got my first paycheck,

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