Housing

I grew up in a rural area and I had the luxury of living in a nice neighborhood. I met a lot of friends in my neighborhood and had a great childhood. It was not until highschool that I saw how lucky I was to grow up in a house with my own room and own bathroom. I played soccer on the highschool team and while on this team I became friends with hispanic players on the team. I offered to drive them home one day and I pulled into the housing area they lived in and I had never experienced anything like this. It was disheartening to see how people had to live. As the year went on I became close with some of these teammates and one day I came inside and played video games with these friends after practice. I became close friends with a lot of the kids on the team that lived in this neighborhood and as I got to know them better I learned that they were some of the most hardworking, honest people but they were stuck in a cycle of poverty. The situation that they lived in was much more complicated than the most common answer you hear “just get a job.” They worked hard and even worked in highschool all year round. They saved their money and spent it wisely (from what I saw) and yet their financial problems continued. I realized this problem was a nationwide problem and I hope to see it resolved in my lifetime. I still keep in contact with these people, and to my knowledge they still live in the same area. It’s a very sad thing to see and I hope that one day this cycle is possible to break.