True Poverty

What do you say to a student who asks you if you've ever been truly poor? The question caught me by surprise. "Like only havign two pair of pants and a pair of shoes poor. Like going without a meal poor," he said. I paused and thought back to the "poverty" of my youth. Growing up with a single parent busting her ass to keep me in private school. Although we had little, we did have a roof over our heads and food on our plates, even though the food was occassionally left on our doorstep. I had a grandma who bought me clothes, a father who spoiled me, and I never thought of hunger. My mother also married men that did well so I had plenty of Barbies and stuff animals to play with. "Have I ever been poor?" He told me of his life in Mexico City, of being left with relatives while his parents tried to make it in the States, "Sometimes they didn't send us money. Sometimes we didn't eat." He went on to describe his brick home with the tin roof. I had asked his class why people immigrated and whether or not they thought it was worth it. "It's better here," he ended. To him it's worth leaving Mexico in pursuit of the American Dream.