Causes Of Poverty In My Life

Let me tell you a story about a little girl with freckles. She wore hand me down clothes and didn’t have many things to call her own. One thing she did have was the determination to succeed. My mom had the misfortune of living in poverty as a child. Her home was a run down, one-bedroom house which she shared with her parents and sister. There are many causes of poverty, one prevalent cause being drugs and alcohol. Her parents were alcoholics and spent most of their time in a bar, leaving my mom to raise her sister. Many of my mom’s extended family had drug and alcohol problems as well, leaving her no real stable adults in her life. My mom had to cook for and take care of her sister and herself from the age of 8. With little adult support at …show more content…
Sadly she didn’t have many opportunities to do so. My mom only did one extracurricular activity in high school and that was swim team and she was only able swim because her friends also swam and their parents could give my mom a ride. She had no access to transportation because her parents didn’t care enough to drive her to practice. They didn’t see the importance of extracurricular activities. Without a carpool, she would have never been able to do that activity. Schools offer opportunities for students to participate in extracurricular activities. For children who live in poverty, it can be harder for them to participate in these activities, whether it is because of transportation, money, or other factors. Having experience with extracurricular activities can be very helpful on college resumes and make them more appealing. I think that it is very important for all children to be in one extracurricular activity or another. Whether it be a sport, chess team, robotics, or another activity. I think it makes children more involved in school and can provide them a way to get into college through scholarship and gives them a fighting chance to earn a scholarship. I play two sports because my parents support me by driving to and from practices and coming to my games to support me. It is a big time commitment, but it is very encouraging when your parents are there to support …show more content…
It is not a life sentence. If you are a determined individual, you can work hard and get yourself out of poverty and into the middle class, or even better. There needs to be a bigger emphasis in schools to help the children who suffer from poverty. They need to be successful to be able to contribute to society and be successful rather than perpetuate the cycle of poverty. My mom is a perfect example of this. She grew up in poverty, but early on realized that education was the key to a better life. She studied up, went to college, and became a teacher. Being the only person in her family to go to college, she proved that it is possible to break the cycle of poverty and make something better about your life even when the circumstances may be grim. Education can be the ticket to a new life for many children in poverty and the solution is hard work and perseverance. Charles B. Rangel says it best, “A quality education grants us the ability to fight the war on ignorance and