I grew up on minimal means, and my mother returned to school later in life and utilized income assistance. I grew up not having much but appreciating everything I did have. We lived in a rented house outside of town, and my family and I became very sick one year before a realtor called to inform my mom that our landlord was trying to sell the house we were renting, and they determined that our well water was contaminated. We had been incredibly sick for several months and weren’t sure why, and our landlord had tested the water but did not disclose this information to us. So, we had to buy bottled water even when we couldn’t afford much else some days. It was a well that would often go dry, and one summer, we had to bathe at the nearby beach for a few weeks because we didn’t have running water for quite a while. One day, it began to rain torrentially and continued into the evening. And I remember standing under the gutters and having the water pour over me; it was one of the best feelings I couldn’t begin to describe. There’s something to be said about having struggles in life and being able to appreciate the good moments because of those struggles. I know that’s a feeling that most people likely haven’t experienced in this area of the world, so it was kind of an incredible event that I often reminisce about. One of my favourite stories growing up happened during Christmas time. My mom had $20 left to pay for our entire Christmas dinner, and she drove to town praying the whole way there that she could somehow make it work and afford to buy everything that would make dinner special, including a turkey. So, the entire drive to town, she asked God to help her find a cheap Turkey for Christmas, and lo and behold, when she got to the store, a Turkey was lying on top of other frozen turkeys in the refrigerator display case but had been priced improperly. It was listed as $1.35 rather than what it was supposed to be listed at, which was $13.5 She immediately assumed the university’s psychology department was experimenting on that store’s customers. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her before she grabbed the turkey from the case. She scouted out for the most inexperienced cashier working that night and immediately headed to a different location to buy the rest because she didn’t want to look suspicious, even though it was an error on their part.It became one of our favourite Christmas miracle stories because of how impactful that moment was for our family and our ability to trust the universe and that divine source of energy to manifest good things into our lives. I use it as a constant reminder to trust that the spirit world always has our back, even in times of great need. Around this time, my family was fortunate enough to live on a piece of property that grew a lot of fruit that we relied on. After my brother graduated high school, there was a six-month period when our financial situation became much worse. and we had very few provisions during that time and lived off the land. Luckily, our neighbour was a farmer and would sometimes leave a few squashes by our front door, and we had apple and plum trees in our backyard, and there were also lots of blackberries and raspberries. My mom made a lot of homemade bread, which tasted nothing like actual bread, but my brother and I still miss it sometimes and think about how good it was toasted while being eaten with a good breakfast. We also depended on potatoes in general, and I couldn’t eat them for a while because that’s all we ate.We would go to New Brunswick in the spring to pick fiddleheads because it was an accessible food source and something we could pick for ourselves. We would freeze them down and eat them throughout the year. They are found regionally and grow wild around water. It was a tradition that every May, we would either go to New Brunswick to pick them up or buy some while we were in the area. Part of growing up poor is minimizing how poor you look and act because you never want to show that you’re struggling in any capacity, especially as a child, and you’re already being bullied. You try to consciously not bring it up and act like it’s not a big deal that you didn’t get many birthday gifts or can’t afford certain activities when your friends can. I remember my brother was in his final year of high school, and one day, he openly admitted that our family was currently receiving welfare to survive. Someone in the classroom said he was being mean for making fun of poor people. He told her, “I’m not joking; I’m actually on welfare,” and she didn’t believe him.  Again, I faced that assumption when I attended high school four years later. I remember a new political party had recently taken office, and one of the platform promises was to allow students whose parents made less than $40,000 to have a reduction in tuition fees. I overheard a girl I graduated with criticizing that no one whose parents made below $40,000 per year would ever go on to university. My mom had since graduated and worked but only made around 30,000 a year. I did go on to graduate from university, but it just shows you don’t always know what’s going on in someone else’s home life, how much their parents make, and what kind of barrier poverty creates in this world—even subconsciously.I consider it a testament to my mother. She raised us in such a way that our income status was seemingly invisible to others. My brother and I both went on to post-secondary institutions, and my mother graduated in her 40s and was the first to do so in her family. She lost both her parents at a young age, and it is a testament to her strength and perseverance that she accomplished so much while raising two children by herself.There may have been moments when I feared having large amounts of money or was reluctant to hold on to it because I wasn’t used to it. I would think of billionaires who hoarded wealth and took advantage of others to line their pockets, and I ultimately judged people who made a lot because I wasn’t accustomed to it. When you talk to people who have had many opportunities and don’t factor in poverty, it’s misguided to assume it has no bearing on the additional hurdles one must overcome to make their way through this world. Instead of feeling impeded by the poverty I faced as a child, I focused on the benefits it afforded me. Other than my weird compulsion to buy excess groceries to compensate for going without early in my life, it helped build character within me, a sense of resilience, a deep trust in the Universe itself, and a sense of strength that I truly value. It likely impacted my view of the world and how I move through it, but it also made me see the importance of all human experience. I do not view someone who lives on the street as having less value than a CEO of a major corporation, and I would not treat either one any differently—it’s just not in me to do so or to see one person as more important than another. Fortunately, poverty created a great equalizer for me in how I treat others, helping me turn obstacles into great character-building opportunities. I think it’s sound wisdom to incorporate that into all aspects of life—where I will perpetually look for the silver lining in every situation. It resonates with my belief that we all come to this world to learn and experience things.Often, our challenges in life can bring about lasting rewards even in terms of personal growth or through enjoying the simple things in life, like being able to grow your food, appreciating water when you have none, or finding an incredible deal at the grocery store and saving Christmas as a result of it. Life is what you make it, and gratitude and authentic appreciation for what you have currently will always feel better 100% of the time than continually finding fault in what you do have.