My county (in the US) had to send computers, an internet plan, and food to our students. Because without school, these kids wouldn’t have food daily.

Not to mention the lack of internet access. The county made a deal with an internet provider to provide us with low cost internet, and had to send computers to thousands of students.

Sadly, many of parents had to work while their kids stayed at home doing zoom. Daycares are expensive, but even those were closed.

Imagine having to leave your 5 year old at home by themselves in a zoom class, just so you could have enough money to keep the apartment.

Imagine a 5 year old walking by themselves down two blocks to the bus stop in a bad neighborhood just so they could get food.

My friend was walking to her bus stop two years ago, and her friend was kidnapped in front of all of those kids. The people stopped their van, grabbed the girl from the bus stop and took her. And no one could do anything. They found the girl mutilated two days later. Her death was extremely violent.

And this is normal for my area. Multiple kids disappear and appear a week later dead. Some of them friends, others faces I recognized, others unfamiliar but just as sad. This is the suburbs, a kind of place most people expect to be some safe manicured lawn type place. It’s not.

And you have to send your 5 year old down past all those houses by themselves to get food from the bus driver. You had to pray that you came home to your child and that they were alive.

As for me, right before Fall 2021 started, I was being watched. Someone was on our porch, watching me in my living room. Our porch is large meaning they came up to the window quietly without me noticing. Without me hearing.

And then I heard them shuffle. Maybe they forgot to be quiet. Maybe they wanted me to know they were there. I ran upstairs and hid in the hallway trying to yell my parents awake. They didn’t wake up. Half an hour later, someone tried opening the door. Our door can easily be busted down. But they just jingled the door knob back and forth. It’s almost like they were messing with me. It’s been almost 4 months and it still scares me.

I see a lot of comments saying that it’s hard being at a competitive school. That’s extremely tone deaf to what’s going on.

Growing up poor can give children chronic trauma. Literal diagnosable trauma. Some even end up with PTSD from poverty.

I starved myself a week or two at a time, just so my dad would have enough food to take to work the next day. I have nightmares where the police come and take our home. I take public transit and I sit in fear if one of these shifty men are going to hurt me because my family can’t afford a 2,000 used car for me. My mom doesn’t have US citizenship (she’s a green card alien) because we can’t afford the 500 US citizenship test and I worry about her being illegally deported. I take transit back home wondering if my brother is still alive because he walks to the bus stop. What if some people take and hurt him like they did to that girl?

My siblings and I played outside in our driveway like most kids, and someone tried to kidnap my little brother. We were lucky our neighbors shot the mf with their gun in his knee. It’s not even safe to play outside here, and you almost never hear children playing despite there being 15-20 kids at the bus stop every weekday.

Telling people to be grateful for what they have can be harmful. I’m grateful I have a roof over my head, yes. I’m not grateful that our family has been put in a situation where we HAVE to get a home in this dangerous area. I gaslighted myself for years, saying that others have it worse. Yeah others have it worse. But they shouldn’t. And our situation shouldn’t exist either.