Is poverty a choice?

      Whenever a question is asked in this class, there is always more than one answer. So is poverty a choice? The answer is yes and no. I'm not familiar with anyone who consciously chooses to be in poverty, but I'm sure there are people out there who make that decision. I'm more familiar with the other answer, that poverty is not a choice.
     From my experiences, I would say poverty is something that a person is born into, or it comes with an unfortunate circumstance. One of the worst, if the not the worst, parts of being in poverty is that it is difficult to get out of it. From what I've witnessed, some people feel sorry for themselves and others make the best out of a bad situation. There are people who would be considered to be impoverished by others, but they don't consider themselves to be in poverty. I think pride does play a big role here, like we discussed in class. Pride can be the only thing they have left, and they're not about to give that up.
     I can give some personal insight to all of this. Before I write about it, I just want to say I did not grow up in a neighborhood like Southie. I didn't have it as bad as Michael Patrick MacDonald did, but I can see where he's coming from. Now time for my story. I lived in a suburb called Lake in the Hills for four years before I moved back to Chicago. I lived with my parents and my two younger sisters, one who was only a year old when we moved out. In 2003, I witness the fight that ended my parents' marriage. My mom took my sisters and me and left the house to come to my grandma's house in Chicago. I've been living here ever since. The divorce was finalized two years later, and it wasn't exactly financially beneficial to my mom. It didn't help that my dad never paid child support. So my mom was working all hours of the day to support her three kids. Like I said, this isn't as bad as the author's life in Southie. I'm living in a decent house with the added support of my grandmother. It wasn't much, but it was more that what the author was living on. However, I do know what it's like to be on food stamps. I didn't have the same kind of clothes as the other kids I knew, and I wasn't getting new things all the time like the other kids were.
     Another thing I understand all too well is the pride thing. Throughout this entire ordeal, my mom very rarely complained out loud especially in front of her kids. At first she tried to make everything sound better than it was, from money problems to the divorce to my dad himself. She knew that my sister and I knew the realities of our situation, so she eventually stopped. Our financial problems stayed within the household.  My mom is the type of person who deals with her own problems then moves on. As I got older, I appreciated her more for the type of person she is. She was married to my father for about ten years just because she wanted her kids to grow up with both parents around. I don't know how she dealt with my dad because I probably wouldn't be able to do the same thing. I admire her for pulling through that situation. I used to hate how I would never see her because she worked so much, but I know it was for my own good. I didn't like how I could never have all the things the other kids had, but it made me realize what was truly necessary versus what I wanted to fit in.
     Like I said previously, this is nothing compared to Michael MacDonald's life in Southie. I'm just trying to explain that I understand some of the aspects mentioned in the book that we discussed in class. I didn't have a perfect childhood, but who does? I am a product of my experiences. Even though my experiences didn't seem good at the time, they've taught me valuable lessons that I am grateful for.