<p>Well… a short reflection… I’m sure many of us here have had the same experiences so comment if you wish :)</p>
<p>Younger, I had felt resentment towards the fact that everyone else seemed to have it better off than me. (resentment towards the fact, not people) Wondering when I’ll move again or what I’ll eat the next day certainly made me apathetic to birthdays or Christmas, times when I treated those days as any other day and presentless. Family deaths, financial problems, everything plagued. Now as a 16 year old, I’ve grown to appreciate my past (some of what was in the past still lurks today though) and wouldn’t trade it for anything. It has made me a better, more understanding, and more sincere person. It has propelled me to do the extracurriculars that I do, set my career path, and live each day with a mission to help others. Yet at times when I do reflect back, I almost feel guilty because of the others who’ve had it much worse than me – kids growing up parentless, growing up trained to seek and kill in third-world countries, growing up in poverty that in no way matched that of my own. One thing that’s ironic… When I was a kid and thought if I were to have my own kids someday, I would never let them experience what I had experienced. Now, my view has changed. It’s good for you in so many senses and on so many levels. </p>
<p>Anyone else have this experience and if so, how did it change you? What are your goals in life?</p>
<p>Yep. Was bitter for a long time, now I feel it’s shaped me into the strong and self-sufficient person that I am today. I’d definitely not want my kids grow up to take the basics of life for granted, I want them to understand what I went through, what MOST of the people in our world are going through… I want them to grow up empathic, savvy people that weren’t sheltered. Of course the dilemma is, rough childhoods live scars, and that’s not what I mean for my kids (or any kid). Having to fight simply changes you - in a lot of very positive ways, when all’s said and done - and I wouldn’t want to deprive my kids of THAT experience, either.</p>
<p>My goals in life are to heal the wounds within my family and leave the world with something good, be it a book, a theory or a deed. That’s all.</p>
<p>I know what you mean, sort of. I used to have it quite nice until one day my dad decided to leave it all and start from strach again (something about not wanting to rely on dad’s money blah blah blah). I was angry at my parents for doing this, esp because my dad became paralyzed and we had to pay for all the medical treatments (yes I was a terrible terrible horrible person.) But that year, my parents took me to India and Guatemala and after observing the lives those people lead I felt like a total arse. It just made me really sad all the time. I would get sad/mad at the certian kids for laughing at things like eating the food that we were supposed to give to the homeless or complaining about how much school sucked or making AIDS jokes. It just reminded me of how the people I saw would do anything for a chance at school and how we don’t understand **** they put up w/ everyday. I never understood, before, why I’d hear people talking about wanting to raise their kids the way they had grown up, or why my dad took us away from …the nice life, but now I understand the importance of teaching children to appreciate what they have.</p>
<p>Now see I feel lucky to have been deprived. It made me realize how much others took for granted. My mom always did her best to make Christmas special no matter how little we got. We got lucky and got out but now everything I do, I do to try to make people’s lives better. I’ve set up a free innercity basketball league in my old community to get the girls especially off the street. The rule is you need the grades to play and 99% of the girls go from Es to at least Cs to get in the league. If I can get one kid out of where I grew up then I will feel as though I have accomplished what I was meant to do. My cousins are super-rich and have no idea what life is really about. My new community is pretty rich and I hear girls crying because their daddy didn’t get them the right shade of brand new convertible whatever. It just makes me want to throw them in some poor country in Africa so they can realize how much they have. It makes me sick how much of what we have is taken for granted.</p>
<p>Haha, yeah, I remember one christmas (technically Muslim new year but it’s the same concept) where I got an orange, a lighter and a toothbrush. I was completely extatic until I found out my best friend broke down over not getting the LATEST barbie doll house… Jesus, people just have no clue what’s important in life. I’d probably break down and cry myself if my kid turned out that way.</p>
<p>Romani, congratulations on your successful project! That is plain awesome. I admire your initiative – that’s the kind of stuff that actually gets us somewhere! You go girl!</p>
<p>Haha, thanks (embarrassed smile). The only thing is though I am EXTREMELY shy and it makes it hard to get money from charities and funds when you can’t talk to them. We rely solely on donations so if anybody has any suggestions of organizations that help people like us PLEASE let me know.</p>
<p>That is awesome roman. You should be proud. I have the same goal as all of you do. I just want to impact and help someone in a way that I never received when I was younger.</p>
<p>:D. Well I was impacted. My neighbor used to hold nightly basketball games in his yard for all the kids. That’s where I got the idea. He figured as long as we were there then we wouldn’t be off doing Goddess-Knows-What. And when I did get out, I just didn’t want to be one of those people who forgot where they came from.</p>
<p>My main problem has been dealing with blended family issues, and remembering everything before that. I agree that all of the hardship, as cliche as it may seem, only makes you stronger. You learn to deal and often become more compassionate.</p>
<p>we had it pretty good in the country from where i’m originally from, not rich or anything, just middle class. but then my parents sent me here to america in search of a better education, and my mom isn’t working so we’re struggling…
its hard. i want to hit people who moan about not getting the latest Chanel sunglasses over the head, or the people who waste their pocket money by buying alcohol and drugs. but i wouldn’t want to be them. i’ld rather be poor and smart rather than privileged and ignorant. it makes you so much wiser and lets you realize how much you can do to change your community.</p>
<p>I looked like a prisoner of concentration camp up to the age of 9 Thanks to perestroika and Eltsin who “freed” us from the communistic evils, my father and mother from their jobs, and huge machine called USSR from ability to work normally.
I remember that eggs were the most tasteful food ever and bananas or strawberries an ultimate dream one could ever achieve.
Then things started going better though :)</p>
<p>As a result, I acquired some very huge eating disorders. Some of them I still have :</p>
<p>chipset, I know what you mean. It’s as if the moment my family and me were off the red cross food rations, we just went crazy scared of ever running out of food again. It was obsessive.</p>
Thanks to perestroika and Eltsin who “freed” us from the communistic evils, my father and mother from their jobs, and huge machine called USSR from ability to work normally.