Using My Trials as Stepping Stones

Most of my childhood consisted of hospital waiting rooms, bad cafeteria food and doctors’ names I couldn’t pronounce. I became inevitably involved with my father’s illness at age 9. I gave shots and dosed medicine. Not the definition of a “daddy’s little girl” others would expect, but that was my childhood.

My father’s illness took his life when I was 11, leaving behind his wife and five children. Soon after, we woke up to the bitter realization of our deteriorating financial situation. The burden that was placed on my mother’s shoulders is one that nobody should have to carry alone. If my dad had had life insurance, it would have taken away the constant financial worry.

I’m now the only child in my family to have graduated from high school. And although the financial struggle to go to college continue, and I will use my trials as stepping stones and my education will be the foundation on which I build my life.

I wish I could say it better, but I can’t form a sentence that expresses how much my family >would have benefited from life insurance. Although setbacks have struck me when I am down, I’ve found that true failure lies when I stop trying. I refused to give up then, and I refuse to give up now.