I was five years old when I realized that I was not able to have certain things that other people were able to have. Hearing my parents say that the $30 toy I wanted was “too much,” was a foreign thought to me. My world had shattered. At this moment I realized that my parents were not rich, which was practically blasphemy.  I had been brought up to think that my family had everything we needed and more, but in this moment that mentality had been brushed away. While this sounds harsh, one has to understand I was five years old, and that rainbow fairy Barbie from the third Fairytopia movie that included her sidekick Bibble, meant everything to me, so I cried until we left the store. I eventually forgot about this instance, but that mentality that we did not have enough money stuck with me. I grew jealous of how other people had more “things” than I did and could not understand our financial misfortune. This mentality needed time to fester in my mind, again I was only a child, but I never forgot about this idea. About a year later my sister had a soccer tournament that required a road trip, and I decided to tag along with her and my father. My father had just bought the Michael Bublé album which included the song “Everything,” and he played this song over and over until we knew every word. Eventually I asked him “Can we listen to a new song?” but he insisted we kept listening to this song. About six loops of the song later I asked in a nasally whine, “Why are we listening to this song?” and very calmly he responded “I want to sing it to your mom when we get home.” I did not say another word. In this moment I realized how fortunate I truly was. I may not have had enough money for that Barbie toy, but I had a father who was willing to spend an entire road trip learning a song for his wife. This is when I realized, other people had many “things,” but I had “Everything.”

Life was not that easy, of course. We still had financial issues, and as much I wanted Michael Bublé to come and sing to us until we forgot about about our problems, he never responded to my letter.  So I grew up, and I began noticing more how other people had more “things” than I did, but my parents never stopped trying to give me and my siblings everything. People began to get phones before I had, and people had the more expensive snacks in their lunch kits, so my parents would splurge at the end of each month to get us the “good” yogurt or the “expensive” ice cream. It was little misfortunes I had noticed, until these “things” started to grow.  Soon it was people participating in afterschool activities that we could not afford, so my parents saved up to get us a blow up water slide for the backyard. By this point I accepted our financial shortfall, and honestly I was not bothered. I had grown content with our moments we had, even though I could not have the most expensive “things,” again I had “Everything.” Soon I had to get a job, but I was not bothered because as the great Michael Bublé says “You’re every line. You’re every word. You’re everything.” This became something I lived by my entire life. I never minded doing the extra work to help out because I knew that a little extra work did not even begin to compare to the lucky life I had been able to live. As I have been able to grow I had become more grateful for what I been given and have grown away from needing material objects and was happy with my family. Afterall, my entire life I was given “Everything.”