I used to think that I was the happiest kid in the world--I had a loving family and I always got whatever I wanted. Everything came so easy, and I took them for granted. For me, life was like a fairy tale, where you always knew that the prince saved the princess, and they always lived happily forever. However, only until recently, did I discover that the world was not as perfect as it seemed. It was the first time for me to feel that I was never the same, never more like a 'human' as now. This rude awakening to the harshness of the world occurred three years ago, when my family and I still were enjoying our fairytale-lifestyle in Hong Kong. .
In 1997, all of Asia was faced with an economic crisis. Millions of people lost their jobs, and my family was not able to avoid being touched by the crisis either. In an attempt to turn a profit in order to improve their financial situation, my aunt and my uncle purchased two pieces of property, even though they knew that they could not afford to do so. In order to purchase the properties, they somehow convinced a bank to give them a home equity loan for about one million dollars, and asked my parents to sign some loan-related documents. My aunt did not explain the contents of the documents, claiming that she just wanted to avoid unnecessary worries. Not realizing the risks he was taking, my father signed the documents without reading them, placing his unquestioning trust in my aunt. One year later, my parents realized that my father had signed a contract to be my aunt guarantor. That is, if my aunt defaulted on the loan, my parents had full responsibility for paying back the loan. Soon after this discovery, the economy completely collapsed and the property price plunged seemingly overnight. My aunt and her family left the country, going to England to avoid having to pay their debts. Needless to say, that debt was now my parents' burden.
Oblivious to what had been going on, one afternoon I arrived home from school, to find my parents sitting quietly in my room.
