When I talk to people my age they are often shocked with how different our lives are, however growing up, I certainly had a different experience than most of my peers.
I grew up in a small, rural neighborhood where most of the families were pretty well off.
In contrast, my family was below the poverty line as well as suffering from multiple addictions. Things were rocky at my house, to say the least. I absolutely had to become an adult earlier than other kids my age, as well as I had a lot more responsibility than they could ever imagine, but my friends are often shocked to hear that I started laboring at the age of 12… In order to be able to afford my own air conditioner, however you see, when I was growing up the two of us had a rudimentary central cooling plan that barely functioned at all. I remember many mornings that my mom insisted that the AC was running, however there was burning hot air coming from every air vent. All of us could not afford for a central heating as well as cooling worker to come service our busted AC system, so the two of us relied heavily on box fans as well as natural ventilation. It was a hot as well as sweaty childhood, to say the least. When I was around 12, I got myself a part-time job in the hopes of saving up enough currency to purchase an AC window unit. I desperately wanted to have more cooling power in my kitchen so I could fall asleep at night instead of lying awake, covered in sweat, as well as listening to my family yell. Eventually, I saved enough currency for a brand new AC window machine as well as even installed it myself. I could not quit my job after that, because I still had to fork over currency for my portion of the energy bill.