College Essay

“The real disgrace of poverty is not in owning to the fact but in declining to struggle against It”

-Thucydides (c. 460 BC- c.395 BC), ancient Greek historian.

We see a person on the corner begging for money and we would walk by that person as if we never saw them. A person comes to our car window asking for change and before he gets to the car there we roll up the car window. Then we see an advertisement to send money to a starving kid in another country and we would send them money. What makes that starving kid in another country different from the starving kid on the corner? Poverty is a growing problem in the United States. Poverty is the root of many other problems. For instance, being poor leads to malnourishment, health problems, and desperate measures such as crime. Furthermore, poverty breeds more poverty; it is a vicious cycle. People want to have a good life and go to school to make their lives better, but they cannot do that until their basic physical needs are met. The reason that I know is due to the fact that I myself face these problems, and it is hard to focus in school when you have a problem like poverty at home, I myself in tend to get college education and break free from the chains of poverty.

Ever since I was a small child, I have to face the problem of poverty. Neither of my parents had graduated form high school. I can tell you many stories like the time when my family lost our apartment and had to move into a three family shelter or when we had to go to a food pantry because we could not afford groceries. Experiences like these have had a large influence on my life for better or for worse.

Poverty is a local nationally, and worldwide problem. It is everywhere from California to china. Nationally, poverty is at a world new level. We, the “Greatest Nation in the World,” have millions of people without health care and homeless shelters that are over capacitated. Locally, it hits homes where there is no electricity or food in the refrigerator and kids do not have their parents because they are working all the time to support their four children. When you do not have electricity or food in your house, you tend not to want to be there, so you turn to your friends and sometimes you get caught you with the wrong people and start to do drugs and join gangs. When you have nothing to do at your house you find other ways to keep yourself occupied. Personally, I turned to sports such as football, wrestling and baseball to keep my mind off the troubles of home, but some of my close friends did not do the same--they turned to drugs, gangs, and crime, and I have seen the devastating effects of their choices. I will not let happen to me; I will get an education and break the cycle of poverty in my family.

What does poverty mean to me? It means hard times. The issues of poverty have to be addressed in our families and communities. People are in a rush to go to other countries to help people thousands of miles away, when the same problems exist in our neighborhoods. I believe that we have to fight the war on poverty at home first before doing it anywhere else. I do not yet how to tackle this problem, but that is why I am seeking an education.

Overall, poverty has not ruined my life but, in fact, made it better. The reason that I see it this way is due to the fact that is has made me strong. I am determined to create a better life for myself and my family through education and hard work. Taking into the account the wise words of Thucydides, I am not ashamed to admit the poverty in my own life, but I would be ashamed if I did not do something about it.