I’m not poor but I’m not middle class either. I’m that terrible place in between where getting by literally means getting by. Your scrapping the bottom of the barrel.I don’t know what it’s like to go hungry, but I know what it’s like to have food so scarce that I don’t eat, not because I want to stay skinny but because I want the rest of my family to eat first. Because I don’t think I need food as much as they do. Because I’ve been raised where family is more important than anything and I will do anything to save them. I don’t know what it’s like to have two parents, whatever their gender. I know what it’s like to live with just one parent. Where I don’t get to spend boat loads of time with my only parents because they are always at work because they need to provide for my family. But no matter how much my parent works, it’s never going to be enough because that one span, that one span of time where there was no one working got us so deep into a hole that we are still paying debts. That we can barely afford enough food for a month or enough gas for the car so that we can get from place to place. I know what it’s like to live in a run down house. One that is falling apart at the seams. The roof is one bad storm, one thaw after a bad winter away from collapsing in. There’s no water, no heat, because the water heater is broken and we can’t afford to fix it just yet, but we’re working at it. I know the cold winter nights where I am wrapped in so many blankets that I’m almost overheating but I stay in them because if I take just one off, the cold air from the leaky windows will make me freeze. I know what it’s like to live away from my entire family. I know what it’s like to live in constant fear that something will happen to my only parent and I will have to move hours away, hours from everything I have known and from the last memories I have of them, because there is no one else who can take me or my siblings. I know what it’s like to live a life not quite poor but not even close to middle class. Even so, I smile everyday because i know it could be worse. I don’t know what it’s like to be unloved because my parent has always showered me with love. They have always put me and my siblings first, even above themselves because they love us so much. This love lets me know that no matter what, no matter what hardships I am faced. I will always get through it because I know what rock bottom is like and now all I can do it climb.