Currently, moving forward in life has been going well, but a long while ago while my family and I were still living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Philly) it was a different story. We lived in Philly from 2008-2010, which was from the time I was born until two years old. We were broke and didn’t have much. I don't remember anything from that time because I was still a baby and couldn’t form memories.

We ended up moving in 2010 when I was two years old. I don't remember the stay in Philly, nor do I remember the move, or anything really. After all the moving, we ended up in Phoenix, Arizona with very little money. Unfortunately, we almost lost everything we had. We kept moving forward no matter the struggles we faced.

One of the earliest memories of my childhood was when I was two years old, just after we had moved and we were at the dentist. They were using numbing medicine…the kind I was allergic to, Lidocaine. From what I was told, my parents were freaking out. My face was swelling up and an ambulance was called. The only part I vividly remember was being in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I only remember a couple of seconds of the experience but it left an impression in my memory. I didn’t remember feeling pain or anything, I only remember looking up and seeing lights while laying on my mom’s lap in the ambulance bed. Luckily though, the recovery was pretty fast, only a couple of hours.

Life from that point on was alright, in my eyes. In reality, my parents were good at making it seem that way. Later down the road, they would tell stories about how they would starve and not eat for large amounts of time in order to make sure we all had something on our plate and were well fed. The truth was, we were struggling. At this time, I was still the youngest of three children, at the age of four. That was until my little brother was born. Knowing how hard life was at the time, the last thing we needed was another mouth to feed. It ended up being okay though, and we managed to make it work. My parents always made sure that we had what we needed. After all that we have been through, life started to get a little better. I started to fit in more, make new friends, and overall started to get comfortable in this place.

Knowing how hard life can be, especially as a child where you don’t have control over your situation, makes me want to work hard. I don’t want to have to worry about everyday struggles like food and bills, like my family did. I know what it feels like to struggle from my experiences as a kid and it makes me want to set myself up for a successful future. My goal is to work to the best of my ability so my parents, the people who helped me out, and my future children don’t have to struggle again. I’m going to keep working and striving for more because I don't want to have to go back to the life that I used to live. I don’t want my parents to worry about where our next meal is going to come from.

Me and my family are still moving forward. I can’t tell if we are the best we’ve ever been or in the act of moving along, trying to make ends meet and keep up. If I had to guess I would say we are moving forward, better than we have ever been. Either way, I know that I am going to keep going, no matter what.

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