Thank you Frankbtl. You're completely right. How could I forget that despite how I was brought up, I'm still "me." Humans may be flawed, but they're still living beings with feelings, a rare commodity in the universe. I do still have a personality, and have opinions on everything that's different than others.

Hello Strive4health, thank you for sharing your experience. I really did connect to it. Sometimes just talking about it helps, as it does for me. It's nice to know I'm not alone in this, and growing up without a ton of opportunities does affect you. I do think it's taught me a lot of lessons on reality, as it has for you. It does teach you to be stronger after set-backs. As a kid, I sometimes even did things without telling my parents, such as going outside and doing things. Nothing bad, but just because they didn't want to deal with keeping an eye on me. I can totally understand how it is to not have a lot of people to hang around. That has setbacks. In my situation, I was the youngest in my family. My older siblings didn't want to keep an eye on me and were to be avoided. I was sort of like an outcast in social situations. Sometimes I had friends and was a little popular, but I didn't visit my friends outside school, except once as a kid. The other kids usually didn't like how I was "different" and "strange." That shortened my opportunities to do things with others. Sometimes I felt very embarrassed being poor, especially when my family was really hurting financially, but I gained better beliefs for it, and learned how wrong it is to be shallow. Also, I think having little to do gives you much more time for introspection, and I grew much stronger in my beliefs. As an adult, I'm attending college now. I do feel much stronger, and I don't back down like other people might. I have learned that no one is all powerful, and to handle everything carefully. I agree with what you said. When I have trouble, I feel okay, even if I don't know the outcome.

On another note, it's sad how a lot of children growing up poor have a higher chance of not being successful later in life. I guess just for having more money, a child has more opportunity to get out more and do things, or at least feel more confident. Being poor can wear on self-esteem early on by shallow people. Also, there are some really great people who have come from middle and upper-class families, just as in poor families. It makes me think that the support they received makes a difference, and some people decide to hold on and be hopeful.