Tell me about the hardships you've faced.

College Life
21

<p>I’ve never had best friends, and as such, people that try to get too close to me get pushed away. I have a lot of people I like to hang out with, but I physically can’t handle being around people for extended periods of time without nitpicking them into my bad graces. Even my roommate last year (whom I love) commented on this–she noticed that sometimes I just withdraw myself from conversation, even if I’m there physically, and just need some quiet time to myself. I don’t know how to let people in fully. I’m not scared of it, I don’t think, I honestly just don’t know how to deal with it. Middle/high school was pretty hard because I was at home 98% of the time, including weekends.</p>

<p>That being said, I hate complaining about my life because being lonely is the worst problem I’ve had to face thus far.</p>

22

<p>Never had many friends in high school and middle school. </p>

<p>My dad who was the person responsible for our household income became disabled after an automobile accident. </p>

<p>I will graduate with over $100k in college debt.</p>

<p>I had to transition from having no friends(high school/middle school) to having friends(Purdue) then not having friends again(JWU). This led to me being depressed most of my time at JWU.</p>

<p>Even though life has been hell for me, I’m sure other people suffered worse.</p>

23

<p>

</p>

<p>lol, is being mexican really a hardship for you? I mean, I’m fully mexican, in an entirely mexican neighborhood and school (the school stat was given as 97% hispanic/mexican), and I can’t say it’s a hardship</p>

24

<p>Well, I’m a black girl who was raised by white parents. You take a guess at some of the hardships I’ve faced.</p>

25

<p>my dad was an abusive drunk. My mom divorced him when I was young. I would spend every other weekend with him, but rarely did he contribute any monetary funds to my life. Eventually got so in trouble with the law that he felt it necessary to run off to costa rica (I was a freshman in HS) for EIGHT years. Very rarely did I hear from him. He just recently returned, claimed he was a new man… and about a week ago got belligerently drunk and threatened my aunt (his sister). He’ll probably end up running back to costa rica soon because that’s how he deals with his problems.</p>

<p>My older brother began to have drug problems starting in middle school when he was caught selling drugs to classmates. He eventually got extremely addicted to Oxycontin. He would steal things from us to fund his addiction; stole our debit cards and pulled money out of them, stole my checkbook and forged my signature, stole my ipod, my digital camera, my little brothers dvd player, the list can go on. It was like living in a prison in your own home. While I was in community college he ran off to live on the streets in a nearby city… and no one knew where he was. my mom was terrified the entire time. He would come back completely filthy, screwed up and tell us stories about how gangsters almost shot him dead, etc. And… he had a son during all of this; that’s now being taking care by my mom since both the mom and dad are totally unfit to do so. He’s doing better now but not living in the same city… which is probably best for him.
To get away from it and keep my sanity, I moved into an apartment with a friend when i was 19 that was WAY too expensive for me. I was desperate to leave my house… I lost a lot of money that i didn’t necessarily have by doing that. I then moved out to another city further away and am living within my means, debt free, woohoo!</p>

<p>When i graduate soon I will be the first person in my family since my grandma to have a bachelor’s degree. I plan on going further one day and perhaps getting my master’s. woohoo :D</p>

26

<p>

</p>

<p>karabee, everything you wrote there… story of my freaking life. And I just hate myself at times for being this way :(</p>

27

<p>I don’t have very supportive friends. They make fun of me for being rich (thanks guys) because therefore I have no problems.</p>

<p>Yeah, I have no problems. It’s not like in second grade I started rolling out of bed and crawling because standing was too painful. I wasn’t diagnosed with spondylolisthesis (when one of your vertebrae decides it doesn’t want to be in your spine any more, and will make an escape towards stage left.) I never had three spinal fusions because the first two failed, nor did I spend the better part of a year in a full body cast as a consequence. No, I had no emotional problems because of that.</p>

<p>It’s not like I still have scoliosis, which may or may not be progressing to such a degree that I will need another spinal fusion, of a lot more vertebrae, which would basically prevent me from doing anything requiring flexibility ever. And it’s not like I love dancing…</p>

<p>No, it’s not like I’m likely to have a genetic disease. It’s fun and cookies to be idiopathic, which translates to: “well, you have enough crazy janx going on with your health (two full-body anesthesia-requiring non-spinal surgeries as well) that you would have a disease except that there aren’t very many people with precisely that collection of symptoms, so you don’t have a disease. You’re just weird.” No, it’s not like there’s a chance that the genetic disease might make it irresponsible for me to have children. (To be irrevocably cut off from that option is a bigger deal than you might think.)</p>

<p>Is it really so much to ask of my “best” friends that when I say I’m worried about my health because I’ve had past health problems, they at least go “Oh?” instead of launching into a story about how their aunt gets headaches, or they have an annual checkup next month, asking me what our homework is, or, worst of all, going “Oh. Okay. Whatever.”?</p>

<p>It’s really not that bad compared to some of the things in this thread (the parental problems, and Niiice’s cancer), but it is so frustrating to have everyone assume I have a perfect life, and get shot down with a wall of a thousand "whatever"s when I try to tell people that I don’t, actually. I’m normally a happy and fine person, nor is this all a source of everyday concern (or self-pity), but this post is the result of a large buildup of not telling people things that they don’t particularly care to hear. This venting will probably do me for at least a year. :)</p>

28

<p>any pain related to true hardship comes from thoughts and emotions. clear them out and you will clearly see the world and appreciate the bad things just as well as the good. glorious purposes come to fruition from hardships. despite the seemingly nonstop flow of them in my own life, i’m not jaded. iwon’t mention them because they are of no significance compared to the good times. hardships build character. and never forget that where there is room for pity, there is room for modesty. humility=success</p>

29

<p>@SingDanceRunLife
Amen. Asian girl adopted by two white parents.</p>

30

<p>i cant afford to go to college. i have a solid GPA 3.5, and a good ACT score, 26 and
i am not getting any financial aid</p>

31

<p>TheMattchine: I doubt that you can’t afford to go to any college. At the least, you should be able to go to your local community college, which may even given you scholarships due to your grades and ACT score. You may not, however, be able to afford to attend your dream school(s).</p>

32

<p>Typical distress in life.
Family problems, domestic violence, attempt battery, robbery, identity crisis, and yes, parents refusing to pay tuition…etc
Suck it up kids, life isn’t fair. You are the only one who can save your own sorry butt.</p>

33

<p>I have extremely unsupportive parents, both financially and emotionally. My dad is a nice guy, but after he had surgery, he stopped working, developed bipolar disorder, and as a result…our income has sharply dropped. My mother on the other hand is an artist (what a job…), smokes 2 packs a day, and is also emotionally and physically abusive (to myself, my 7 siblings, and my father). She never graduated high school and thus she never cared enough for my older siblings and I to go to college (out of 7, 4 have entered and only 1 has graduated), and instead manipulated our time and literally did not allow me to do homework until I was done doing mundane tasks.</p>

<p>Having a low income (I’m talking $11,000 or less a year) made it so that I had to get a job early on, in addition to taking all honors/AP classes and doing extracurriculars. At one point, I literally had no food in my fridge we were so poor and my sister stepped in and bought me food. My grandparents have also supplemented my income, or else there would be no way we could survive (literally).</p>

<p>On top of that, I’ve had many medical problems since I was about 10. I’ve missed about 1/5 of instructional time during high school due to major illnesses, and I’m allergic to so many things that I am miserable and picky (out of necessity) and feel bad for the people who have to cater to me. Missing school and being sick are both extremely hard, and medications and illnesses that I have had have caused me to gain weight and thus my weight has been a problem for the past few years - no matter what I eat or how much I work out. Additionally, I lose my hair on and off. No telling when it will stop or grow back. </p>

<p>I have great friends for the most part, but a lot of them are…not exactly hard-working or motivating, and a lot of them have chosen boys or drinking over everything else in life, but in a way that has motivated me to get where I am. I mean, hey, it isn’t Harvard…but I feel I’ve at least achieved something in the end.</p>

34

<p>my shoes are kind of crowded in the toes.</p>

35

<p>That’s quite a story you have there, sdr691. It appears that hard work and perseverance got you through. Now all you need to do is graduate.</p>

<p>You go to Georgetown, hmm? I know a good high school friend who goes there (and is a member of the Class of 2013 herself).</p>

36

<p>

</p>

<p>There always has to be that one guy with a stick in the butt that whips out the ever familiar “life isn’t fair, get over it” jargon. A valid point, though an extremely overused one at that, but maybe unnecessary for a thread about personal hardships? What else were people suppose to talk about here…</p>

37

<p>Daddy got me an Acura, I wanted a Beemer… :(</p>

38

<p>Being homeschooled for 18 years was pretty challenging sometimes, but worthwhile ultimately.</p>

39

<p>Over my high school career I missed a total of about 11 months of school due to extreme GI illness that no one could seems to diagnose. I also brain surgery and my gall bladder removed. So I missed more than an entire year of school. I was put on homebound schooling, which involved a woman coming by to give me tests, but no instruction. So I had to teach myself in several AP classes. But I got better and graduated with a 4.1 GPA. I don’t feel unfortunate at all. The whole experience made me so much stronger.</p>

40

<p>The hardest thing in my life is being a younger military veteran in classes with ungrateful rich children who haven’t the slightest at the opportunity they have in front of them.</p>

<p>Also, I’m used to tech school class structure where you’re required to stand when the instructor enters the room and expected to keep upright posture during a 4 hour lecture.</p>