30 Days of Thanks - Day 22

I am thankful for all the struggles of my life, more specifically, my life before the age of 18. We weren't the poorest family but we probably weren't too far from it. There were times we when struggled, in fact most of the time it was a struggle. There were winter months with no electricity, we used kerosene heaters to keep us warm, we ate cold sandwiches every day, we had to make sure our homework was done before dark or we wouldn't be able to see to do it. We would heat water on the kerosene heaters in order to mix with cold water and have a bath each day, if you happened to add too much cold water...well, you had a cold bath. There was one occasion when we were fortunate enough to only live a few houses down from my grandma so we were able to extension cords through the backyard of the vacant houses between our house and her house and have some power.


I was ashamed, but more than that I was afraid. Afraid that if anyone ever found out that we, my siblings and I, would be taken from my parents - so we went on with life and we never said a word about it to anyone. The funny thing is, now when I look back on those times I can see that they were some of the best times of my life. We had so much fun together during those times, it brought us closer together, it made us stronger. Those experiences have molded me into who I am today. I feel more humble because of it and more compassionate towards people who may be going through similar situations. And most of all, it makes me all the more thankful for everything that I have now. In fact, sometimes I even find myself wishing that everyone would have to live through such things at least once in their lifetime.