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My Neighborhood-Personal Narrative I would wake up Saturday morning to birds chirping. I would get up, get dressed and go outside. The children in my neighborhood would come to my backyard, and we would play 'til our parents called us in. I remember the trees being huge, and the days so long. I didn't really know many of my neighbors. I had a handful of friends who lived in the same building, and that was it. The neighborhood itself was pretty bad. Sometimes I would wake in the middle of the night to the sound of gunshots. After living around Central Park and Armitage for a while I kind of expected the gunshots. In fact, my mother and I survived a drive by shooting. I am glad my mother restricted my interaction with the outside world. Were it not for her, who knows what I would be doing now. That is, assuming I were still alive. As you may be able to tell, I grew up in a poor community, mostly blue-collar workers. Even though I lived in that community for six years, from the time I was five until I was eleven, I wasn't part of it. More so, it was a part of me. As a ...
Barbara Ehrenreich’s story, in her book “Nickel and Dimed,” was humbling to read. Her quote at the end of her book left me speechless. She states, “I grew up hearing over and over to the point of tedium that hard work was the secret to success: ‘Work hard and you’ll get ahead’ or ‘It’s hard work that got us where we are.’ No one ever said that you could work hard—harder even than you ever thought possible—and still find yourself sinking ever deeper into poverty and debt (220).’” When I first started to read this quote I thought it was going to be encouraging, but by the end my heart felt heavy for people like Ehrenreich that are stuck in poverty and can’t seem to get out, no matter how hard they work. It is such an eye opener to me because I have grown up hearing things such as “work hard to get what you want”, which is similar to what Ehrenreich has heard as well, yet Ehrenreich didn’t find this to be true. Being privileged and having parents that support my financially is something that I take for granted.
I wasn’t poor but I wasn’t rich either, I was surrounded by an environment in which many people where in need of shelter and food because their families could not afford both. Just like poverty played a major role in my life, so did an ambitious and hardworking environment. Because those people I would see every day on the streets without food or a home, were the ones that had a bigger passion than anyone else, to one day be able to have a stable job and home for their family. This has shaped me to be who I am today, because I greatly appreciate what I have and take advantage of the opportunities I am given because not everyone is lucky enough to have what one
America’s working-class poor, especially those of color often feel neglected, inadequate, and deprived of hope. Mos Def demonstrates the distress of those living in poverty when he expresses, “ Working class poor: better keep your
I cannot honestly say I have ever known a day of poverty in my life. There has never been a time when I have gone to bed hungry or had to worry about crime in my neighborhood. I wouldn’t say I’ve lived a sheltered life, my environment just doesn’t allow for such things. Regardless of whether I am “better off” than the kids in The Pact, I know the remarkable things that good friendships can do for one’s life. Whenever I am feeling a little down, or I’ve had a bad day, a friend wil... ...
Because of some of the circumstances that make me who I am, it is hard to say I have any one definitive home. Instead, I have had two true homes, ever since I was a young child. What makes this even more of a conundrum is that my homes have always had little in common, even though they are only a few hundred miles apart. Between the big city of Houston, Texas, and the small town of Burns Flat, Oklahoma, I have grown up in two very different towns that relate to one another only in the sense that they have both raised me.
Where I lived it was quite peaceful. No violence, no loud noises, and no woman screaming at her baby daddy for not paying child support. My house was yellow with a burnt red roof with black doors and beautiful flowers surrounding the front and the right side of the house. I would always walk across the street to Mrs. Mary’s house to go play with all the dogs she took care of. My neighbors were the best. Although they were elderly, they were the nicest people I have ever come across. I used to think that maybe old people were much better friends than kids my
The temperature dropped to a frigid ten degrees fahrenheit with a -15 degree wind chill factor in Title Town. The only thing easily seen in the fog was my teammate’s and the thousands of spectator’s breath hovering in the air like a ghost. The championship game was set to start in 15 minutes. My flag football team and I sat on the Green Bay Packers sideline because we won our final game. I eagerly watched my favorite wide receiver, Jordy Nelson, catch the football when suddenly Aaron Rodgers approached me and started talking to me. At first he just discussed the throwing technique that he uses because we were both quarterbacks, but when I told him that I threw for two touchdowns and ran for one he seemed surprised and asked for my autograph.
Having a family of low socioeconomic status inevitably leaves me to reside in a low-income neighborhood which makes it more likely for me to witness the tragedies, adversities and hardships that people go through [not excluding myself]. Being conscious of this kind of environment, and these kinds of events, creates a pressure on me for having the aim to achieve social mobility in order to escape the aforementioned environment so that my own children could witness one less abominable aspect of life. Moreover, my family’s low socioeconomic status does not authorize me the privilege of being raised with the concerted cultivation method that kids of high socioeconomic status are more prone to being raised in. My family did not have the financial resources that granted us access to extra classes or lessons of instrumental classes, swimming practices, karate practices, or any other extracurricular activities that people of high socioeconomic status would be able to afford. This invisible fence that prevents me from these extracurricular activities enables me to having more appreciation towards the hobbies and talents that other people have. Plus, the fact that my family’s low socioeconomic status acts as a barrier from enjoying expensive luxuries in life creates a yearning [in me] to enjoy them later on in my life, in addition to acting as the fuel to my wish of achieving social mobility in anticipation of providing my own children with the luxurious vacations, gadgets, beachhouse, new cars that I could not
Poverty has been a growing problem in America, and it most likely will never stop being one. Someone who is identified as being in poverty lives beneath the poverty line determined by the Federal government. The poverty line in 2015 for a family of four was $24,250. These are the people who are really considered poor. Poverty isn’t just a problem in the United States; in fact, other countries struggle just as much, if not more, than the United States does. Many people struggle to keep themselves above the government’s poverty line, shown by the fact that the percent of poor people in America hasn’t drastically changed over the years. However, it is possible to get out of, and ultimately stay out of, poverty.
I live in Paradise Hills. It’s a very quite place. It is also pretty peaceful. No crimes take place and you don’t feel threatened in any way. The air is fresh and the environment is clean. My community is fairly quiet. But there are a couple of times when the neighbors throw parties. We don’t know our neighbors well - aside from the numerous times we threw our ball in their backyard. My neighbors seem pretty chill though. I have one neighbor that has a beautiful garden. It’s huge and really nice. We had moments where his dogs try to hop the fence and chase me and my little siblings. We play with them though, but it’s still pretty scary.
My feet are sore from rushed reps, and the sun is beating down on my back as I spin the routine for “America the Beautiful” for the umpteenth time. Mr. Rice had no sympathy despite this being the last day of band camp. The longer that I spent marching circles around the school, the more nervous I was about running out of time. It wasn't necessarily anybody's fault that the clock was ticking down, and that I was afraid of losing everything. The metronome beat endlessly, speeding up as if it wanted rest as much as we did.
I did not grow up wealthy by any means, but I was always comfortable. I lived in a nice home, I was enrolled in many extracurricular activities, and I always had foot to eat. I started working while I was in high school, but my earnings were mostly for spending money as I only had small bills. While my parents were not considered rich, they were stable. As I grew up, I reaped the benefits of that stability, unaware of how many people lack resources needed to survive. The book $2.00 a Day Living on Almost Nothing in America opened my eyes to what too many people’s lives are like. As I read the book, I became more aware of the fact that I was sitting in my cozy, warm apartment. I would get up for a snack and notice my full refrigerator. I would take a bathroom break and recognize that I had running water and the soft kind of toilet paper. The more I read, the more I appreciated the things in my life that I have always considered simple, but that many only dream of. Between $2.00 a Day Living on Almost Nothing in America and the textbook, Essentials of Sociology, my narrow view of what like in America is like expanded exponentially.
How many of you like to travel? Do you travel alone or with group of people? How about go to another country alone? Could you ever imagine to take a plane and fly away somewhere by yourself? Some people get freaked out just mentioning this. They start thinking about all this horror stories of kidnapping, robbery, cheating. However, there is no guarantee that it is not going to happen if you are with your friend.
Do the poor in this country have a choice not to be poor? Do the less fortunate have the same access to opportunities as the middle and upper classes? Do government programs designed to help the impoverished actually keep them in the lower ranks? These are all difficult and controversial questions. Conservatives and Liberals constantly battle over these issues in our state and federal governments. Local and national news media provide limited insight to the root causes and effects of the nation’s poor. There is obviously no simple solution to resolve the plight of these often forgotten citizens. Most of us associate poor as being in a class below the poverty line. In fact there are many levels of poverty ranging from those with nothing, to those with enough to survive but too little to move up. I believe many of our nation’s poor are so by their own doing. I will share observations and personal experiences to support the argument that being poor often is a result of individual choice. One needs merely inspiration and perspiration to move up the socio-economic ladder in the United States. We live in the land of opportunity where anyone with the drive and determination to succeed often can.
J.K. Rowling once said “Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized by fools,” and this really resonates with me as my family has always struggled with money. It was this state of poverty that has stayed with me my whole life and defined who I am today.