<p>I want to read into other people's lives and realize what they've been through. Be it getting thrown out of your home or getting addicted to drugs or getting scammed on some sneakers on ebay, feel free to talk about it. Anything that you think might have hindered your opportunities to get what you want. Maybe also thing you plan to do to move on or fix it.</p>
<p>I had to walk uphill both ways to go to school.</p>
<p>My mom died when I was 9 and then in the middle of 11th grade my dad was diagnosed with a seizure disorder but that’s under control now if my parents (stepmom just adopted me :D) are telling me the full extent of everything. </p>
<p>Also, from about age 11 to age 13, I had glasses, excessive acne and braces all at the same time! I don’t think that counts but that DEFINITELY hindered me from getting the opportunities I wanted 
(just kidding about the winky face although it kind of was torture knowing I was ugly… especially when I went to sleepaway camp with really pretty girls who were always, well, you know… you can put your mind in the gutter yourself if you’d like).</p>
<p>So can I ask why you’d like to know this?</p>
<p>I live in a relatively poor neighborhood my whole life because I can’t afford the prices in Manhattan. My neighborhood is full of asians who are poor and are immigrants which is the reality for many asians. I don’t feel in touch with these people because I am born in America and don’t speak chinese at all. </p>
<pre><code>I had parents who were unsupportive of my academics and my chances at success. I basically had to do everything myself with my parents doubting me the whole way. I could not understand why my father can’t see me as anything but average and why he feels that I have no chance at being successful even though I have proven myself.
I am naturally shy so I had to face the implications of that through my teenage years.
</code></pre>
<p>You’d better get into Brown, hopefullybrown15; you deserve it :)</p>
<p>Anyway, at one point I think I had pretty much no self-confidence. I used to act out in my freshman year of high school to be funny and fit in. All that kinda limited my academic opportunities, but I think I later made up for it :)</p>
<p>That being said, I wouldn’t have rewrote my past in any way. It was fun as hell being an idiot and I was so freakin’ popular!</p>
<p>Yeah, so, that’s basically as hard as it gets being a white, suburban kid.</p>
<p>Haha thanks I’m actually not that into Brown anymore (I still like it but idk if it’s my top choice) but it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is on paper. I mean I live in a wealthy neighborhood, my parents make a ton of money (hence I went to a sleepway camp with a bunch of snobs :P), I go to a great public school, I get good grades and I don’t have to worry about financial aid too much in college (unless something REALLY bad happens between now and college).</p>
<p>Trust me there are a TON of people who are a LOT worse off! In fact, I’d say the majority of the people I can think of (other than those in my neighborhood, etc…) are worse off than I am.</p>
<p>I’m a white suburban kid too NonAntiAnarchist :P</p>
<p>Okay, never mind. I hope you don’t get into your top choice, you privileged, little, rich, white-boy :p</p>
<p>I have a 0 EFC? and they keep labeling me as “at-risk” at the community center and I’m like “what the hell am I at risk for?”, but that center gave me a job and a lot of help in college so I can’t complain, besides the “at-risk” label only comes up around spring when charity givers come around and take a tour of the west side. Oh, and I avoiding getting pregnant in high school and I feel like that might deserve an award ( 
, nah we just have a ton of pregnant chicks and in HS my parents only advice was to not get pregnant, and I did! so my mom was actually proud of me for stopping that family tradition). </p>
<p>But all in all, considering that I have internet and a computer and a roof over my head I figure I’m doing better than 90% of the world.</p>
<p>I was raised in a broken home with a lot of abuse, and I was disowned at 15. However, I really don’t think it hindered me at all; sure, life was tough as a kid, but I still did well in school and now I’ve got enough experience to help out other people.</p>
<p>Half-mexican
Live in a highly concentrated area of mexicans
Hypochondriac</p>
<p>my dad was a caltech alum who essentially bred me for the purpose of getting into caltech.</p>
<p>he would prep me for iq tests and use the scores to get me into classes with people five years older than me. i had no friends in elementary school as a result. when i started having emotional difficulties (and failing my classes) i gradually moved down to a normal grade level. my dad thought it was too easy for me, so he got people to tutor me in physics, chemistry, calculus, and number theory. i spent most of this time making little paper dolls and playing with the pens on the table. if i didn’t want to go he would guilt trip me by saying caltech only wanted people who were passionate about math and science.</p>
<p>in my family, every spare moment was a waste of time. every summer had to be spent at some science camp, every evening doing all the problems in some math book. every hour playing was an hour i could have spent studying. even the car ride to and from school … my dad made me read algebra: the easy way. i was five.</p>
<p>of course i got into caltech. i couldn’t have not gotten in. i spent all of elementary, middle, and high school being bred for that application.</p>
<p>but then they kicked me out for trying to kill myself. i came back, and then they kicked me out again.</p>
<p>don’t get me wrong, i loved it there … but somehow, i feel freer than i have in my entire life.</p>
<p>I had a pornography problem from middle school through high school but I’ve completely eradicated that part now from my life (though I’m sure I’ll be tempted again someday).</p>
<p>I also had no friends in middle or high school and I got depressed since I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Glad that part of my life is over too :)</p>
<p>It really sounds like a lot of people have been through hardships - I think an important lesson we can take from this is that although there are lots of people who have lived spoiled lives and are whiny and don’t know how good they have it, even those who are rich and seem to have good lives on the outside also face hardships (emotional, family, etc) as well as those who face things like poverty and such.</p>
<p>In my case personally, I’ve faced the challenges of being a first-generation american (born to immigrants) and who’s first-language was not English, who is multiracial [it’s hard for non-multiracial people to understand this as much, but it definitely is an enormous emotion burden and challenge in society], facing significant racism in a very mono-ethnic region, an abusive/often violent family life (although now in college it’s gotten much better thank God, but I feel the only reason I say that is because I’m not exposed to it anymore - when I’m home it’s like a nightmare) things like being ugly, fat, acne in high school, living in poverty in a poor neighborhood in the inner-city, the closet people to me dying randomly (two brothers, my grandparents who raised me when I was young and who I grew the closest too because of my rough family life, and other close people - these definitely hit the hardest because they served as people who I could talk to about my struggles, and often their deaths were surprising/random and I never had a chance to say goodbye to any of them), and that’s about all.</p>
<p>I acknowledge the struggles I’ve been through, but although it’s truly tempting to give into all the pain and stress, I know that if I do fail all the struggling will have been for nothing and all the people would have died in vain, so I push on with grim determination and have been building a better and successful life.</p>
<p>I encountered most of my life difficulties during my first year of college. I was the only freshman commuter, and as a result, I had few friends on campus (beyond some of the high school acquaintances who came to BC with me and some people whom I had to work on group projects with). </p>
<p>It’s easy to tell someone like me to join more clubs and be more “active” on campus, but something like that is actually harder to implement in reality when you have obligations outside of school, both at home and in the workplace. </p>
<p>To be quite frank, I don’t care anymore. At least my parents still feed me and buy all the video games I want.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>well. I had some problems too. I’m curious. I guess when I think more about it, this thread is a fellowship of all the cripples and children of divorce. Priceless, I mean the rich kids can’t touch us in here.</p>
<p>In addition, and this is not a joke, I’m also curious on how hardship can shape your attitude. For example I hear beating your kids cause them to be shy. Like someone said above, he says he’s pretty shy, and apparently he had bad parents. Or she, whateva.</p>
<p>I think facing hardship might be a good thing too. I might beat my future kids to a stupor</p>
<p>The most significant issue I have always had is my relationship with my parents. I always felt like everything I did was wrong - if I cut butter on top instead of the side, for example, of forgot to fill the water pitcher right away, it was like I started World War III. My dad and I are constantly at odds because as I got older, I hated taking the constant criticism, so I started to fight back. I distinctly remember telling my father to “shut the f*** up and leave me alone” once when he started yelling at me for my selfishness when I asked him to drive me to the mall so I could buy a birthday present for a friend (I couldn’t drive yet). He threw me out of the car. </p>
<p>I still feel constantly frustrated, but honestly, I’ll be out in a few more months for good and on my own. I never told anyone about any of this because it hasn’t been that big of a part of my life. I still think I’m upbeat and positive, for the most part, although I’m definitely a little more argumentative. I’ve always been busy and just avoided spending as much time at home as possible.</p>
<p>Reading through this thread, I can definitely say that I’ve been extremely fortunate. The most “dangerous” problem I’ve had have always involved other people - i.e., when a good friend had to be hospitalized for serious depression. So I’ve been lucky.</p>
<p>Sorry for the rant 
I don’t usually talk about this, but once I start, I can’t seem to stop…haha</p>
<p>I really haven’t faced any hardships, but the most hectic thing in my life was seeing my mother go through breast cancer treatment when I was a sophomore/junior in high school. It was stressful. I used to cry at night because I felt like I couldn’t really do anything for her. She would joke how she was falling apart, but that used to make me feel even worse :(</p>
<p>Nowadays, she’ll tell me that it was meant to be. Prior to getting diagnosed, I rarely got to see her. She had taken up a second job four years prior to help pay for the house and for college. I’d be asleep when she arrived home after 11:30 each night. The only time I used to see my mother was in the morning before I went to school for like an hour. After she got diagnosed and the cancer went into remission, she quit the job and I was able to see her more. I try to spend as much time as I can with her now and appreciate every moment.</p>
<p>I really do <3 my mom and thought she was brave for what she went through. I just couldn’t imagine myself going through what she experienced, but I know that there could be a possibility in the future and I’m prepared :D</p>
<p>Addiction- World of Warcraft (among other games really)- 2200 hours played. Hardly any friends in high school. I still look fondly on some of my raiding days sadly.</p>
<p>Other-</p>
<p>Crazy parents- live separately, one with a smoking problem and one with a drinking problem, each is a little crazy.</p>
<p>No direction in my life, not having a purpose, dunno if that is a hardship.</p>
<p>My family never really had much money.
Then I got cancer when I was 12, and my mom quit her job, so we had like no money.
I had chemotherapy for about a year and about a total of 7 surgeries over 4 years. I’m cancer free now though, so that’s great.
Now that my mom has a job it’s getting better, but I had bone cancer in my arm so I can’t use it for much 
I’m not allowed to carry heavy things with my arm, I can’t raise it very high, it hurts from time to time because I just had another surgery on it, and I have a lot of big scars. It’s kind if awkward when people ask about them.</p>
<p>Btw, chemotherapy is
HELL</p>