My father left when I was young. My mother never could get great work, but she always had a job and as long as I could remember worked hard. One day in high school I woke up and she had packed her bags. She had made me breakfast, but told me she was leaving and that I wasn’t coming. That we were being kicked out of our apartment that day. That was it.
I slept on couches at friends’ houses. I still went to school for a bit, but I was 16 and didn’t have to go any more. Eventually I just stopped, and nobody really said anything. Now I work at a call center making minimum wage, I wish I had stayed in school. I realize that I’ve been in poor for a long time now, but now that friends are getting better work I realize my mom leaving and me leaving school was when I first really fell into poverty.