This I Believe by Emily C.
I believe that we can’t let our childhood determine our future. We have to work on
bettering ourselves and go the extra mile each and every day so one day we can reach
our full potential. Nobody is working towards the same goal which means nobody is
going to overcome the same challenges. So we need to be supportive of what others
are able to overcome and what others are able to do.
Growing up, my family didn’t have very much money. We lived in Moxham in a
four-bedroom house, which may seem big, but there were six kids living in it at one
point. All of us were of different ages. I was the youngest; my brother is seven years older
and all my sisters are multiple years older than him, so we were all in different stages of
our life growing up which meant we all needed different things. The clothes were all
hand-me-downs besides from my brother’s, of course, but that didn’t matter for me, I got
everybody’s clothes once they were done with them because the bills took over ninety
percent of my mom and my dad's pay combined, and we didn’t have enough money to
always go out and buy new. There were times we wouldn’t have cable, electricity, or
even food because we couldn't always afford it. My mom never let that stop us from
enjoying our childhood; we were always outside and playing sports. I'm thankful for how
I grew up because growing up like that made us all extremely close. I was able to watch
my siblings achieve their goals, and not one sibling had the same goal.
My goal in life is to become a police officer and save enough money so that I
don’t have to worry about going without like I did when I was younger. I don't want to be
worried about where my next meal will come from or if I have enough money to pay the
bills. I want to take what I saw from my childhood and use it to grow and learn from what
my parents did.
My parents taught me that even if something is going wrong in life to never let
that get in the way of your motivation. If you are doing something and it seems like it
isn’t working out you’re going to have to stick with it until the end, and for the most part, I
believe that. However, it also taught me that if something is wrong and if you can barely
afford to live then you need to be the one to make a change because nobody else will. I
hope one day I can take care of my parents, and help repay the debt they are in from
my siblings and me, but I know in order to do that I need to achieve my goals in life first,
and that starts by understanding that I need to do things differently than my parents did,
and I can't let the past determine how my future will turn out. This is why I believe we
can’t let our childhood determine our future.
