Financial Struggles: A Family's Battle with Unemployment

My family has always lived a humble and comfortable life. Both my parents worked in the afternoon so it is not unusual that my parents are gone before I get home from school. One after- school day, my mom walks in through the door wearing her uniform. She sits our sisters down and in a serious tone says she has been fired. It was around the time where many employers were checking up on the validity of worker security numbers and there were numerous job raids lead by sheriff Arpaio. After working for nine years, my mom’s boss found out that the social security number she had been using for the job was not hers. We were fortunate enough that it was not a deportation.
With my mom not working, my dad became the only one who provided for our family. It became a financial strain. We did not realize how lucky we were before; if we needed something for a school project or school fees, we just had it. Once high school came around, there were all sorts of fees that needed to get paid like lockers and book fees. We no longer had enough to spend on the sweet little pleasures like

There was no one there to guide me, and I did not know anyone else who I could rely on for accurate information. Unfortunately, I was not able to acquire those honors classes because there was an exam to get in the class that I was unaware of, but my counselor advised me to wait until my sophomore year. While I was in my math class, my teacher spent a whole period talking to us through the dual enrollment process. As I filled out the required information on the website and the forms, I had not realized that a social security number was needed. A tinge of shame and sadness hit me. It was something I had no control over; it was discouraging. I accepted that dual enrollment was something that I was unable to do at the time. I took AP classes instead; taking what I knew I could handle while also keeping up with