Sandra California

The hunger for a finer living

Sometimes the world may not be as perfect as it seems.

Dear Future President,

      I am very concerned of our current situation with poverty. Although poverty is one of the many leading concerns in America, and as well as in other countries and nations, easing down the various effects caused by poverty may bring certain setbacks to various developing countries way more occasionally than it would to the most stable ones. But to be quite honest and straightforward, my main idea has been centering with the concept of poverty in this first world country, and how there never seems to be an end to the long tail of concern related to poverty.

      Poverty has been around for a vast amount of time, but he thing is, our vision of poverty varies in time and place, and can range in between different meanings; ranging from hunger, abuse, living without a shelter, or just simply being poor, but we also have to take in mind that living in poverty may be drastically different than what living in poverty used to be like centuries ago, or even how it might be in different countries. As a result, there may be also be varying reasons why people even go through poverty, whether it's due to financial or medical problems, the reasons may be infinite. What is very clear though, is that poverty is visible. Whether it is a sleeping man hunched in building's corner or a struggling family counting each penny of theirs to buy a single carton of eggs for tomorrow's breakfast, it is very clear that poverty is still alive, even in a supreme country like this one.

     Coming from personal experience, when I was younger and growing, I had never thought of us as being poor, as I never felt that I needed more than I had, but mainly because I never really understood the pressure both of my parents were carrying on their backs, as they were trying to hide all things that would make us question certain things about our lifestyle. That is, until I grew older, was when I suddenly understood why our lives weren't quite the same as those of the others around us, but mainly because we have never lived in a house of our own. And sometimes, it even breaks my heart to think that my family has to live in such a sad way or to think about how my mother always struggles with buying groceries, leaving her to sometimes leave behind something she liked, because one of us needed a new pair of shoes or a new shirt. But what hurts me the most is how I have occasionally wished to live in a different lifestyle, to experience a day in a room in which only I sleep in and to be in a place where my mother no longer has to leave a new shirt behind because she needs money to afford next week's groceries, because these types of thoughts bring me down the most, even to point of being ashamed of myself by not being conform to the lifestyle my parents have practically worn their backs off in order to give all four of us a better education than the one they both had. Which is why I believe that poverty exists and has it been existing, even if it's just the same situation as the one my family and I are going through, or a case much worse than our, because there will always be something to worry about in this world, and I have hope that there will someday be an end to the endless suffering millions go through every day, which is why this is something that should undoubtedly be in the mind of our future president.

John Henry Francis Polytechnic High School

Honors English 10 A / Period 2

Sophomore English class in the magnet program of John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, California.

All letters from this group →