I come from a lot of things. I have felt what it is like to be that family with a beautiful home, olympic sized in ground pool, pizza every Friday, and a butt load of presents under the tree. I have also experienced being the family that uses a cooler as a refrigerator and watching my mother painstakingly sell off our beds to keep food on the table and the power on. As a child, I felt what my parents wanted me to feel, loved. I was not embarrassed about our situation, and because of that I think that a lot of people were unaware of how bad it was at times.
When I grew older and learned a few life lessons (good, tough, lessons), I found myself at a crossroads. I was at a point where I needed to change my life and attempt to maximize my potential as a mother who provided in all ways to my son whom only had me. I birthed a fully new appreciation for parents who have nothing but can make their children feel like they have everything. We truly had very little, Luke and I. We had each other and spent very little time dwelling on what we didn't have. I never even considered public assistance in any way as a college student. I literally let the power get shut off. I did not even know where the office was or how it worked but with a little guidance, figured it out. I was on assistance for almost the entire time I went to school for my undergrad degree, about six years. This was from 2001 til 2007. Right before the age of facebook and social ignorance.
I love facebook for the possibilities that it offers for people who don't have a lot of alternatives for socialization. I love facebook for globalization, the world marketplace at your fingertips!? Oh how far have we come?! At this point, there might be more users that don't know a life without facebook and will never know the struggle! Or maybe they will never know the feelings of not being judged unceremoniously, countless times, every day.
Maybe, possibly, I am walking around with rose-colored glasses, but, I don't recall ever hearing people in the 70s - 90s walk around openly judging other people if they were paying for food with food stamps. Furthermore, I would not refer to them as "insert-your-town-name-here's finest". Do you think they want to be on assistance? Back then, food stamps were paper!? Much more noticeable than a small piece of plastic that looks like a quick swiping credit card. You weren't judged for being on medicaid, it just didn't happen.
People helped each other, it was a community where people cared more. Now, I cannot scroll through my newsfeed, not one day without someone posting and complaining about how their "hard earned money is going to someone else"... I honestly, just don't get it. If you are one of these people, someone who hasn't thought long and hard about who is on the receiving end of your post (whether they know it or not), how would you feel if someone was saying this about your mother? your daughter? your grandson?? You can't say that they will never experience hardship in their lives, how would you know for certain? Anything can happen and god forbid someone treats them or talks about them they way that some people so haphazardly deem themselves worthy enough to trash talk/treat others. Get off your pedestal and go volunteer. See what it is like to live the 'easy' life.
peace. love. and quit judging people.
