My father was unable to support us the way he used to, so I wasn't able to do as many senior events as I would've like to, such as going to homecoming, winter formal and other events. I was extremely upset that I wasn't going to participate to these events and enjoy my last year of high school. During this time period I questioned my faith and often wondered why was this happening to my family? Why my mother? I was completely selfish and always prayed for an abundant amount of money because I believed money was the only key to happiness.
Attending multiple doctor visits, it turned out that my mother's kidneys were failing and she had kidney stones. She quickly received her operation and recovered within the next few weeks. I was extremely relieved that my mother was okay now, and happy that she would still remain in my life. My father talked to me personally and said, "Erika, I know there was things you wanted to do but this wasn't the time to do these things." I completely understood that it wasn't the right time and I wasn't able to do things because of financial issues. My mother was not able to receive her job back and our family as a unit changed completely. I noticed my parents were stressed, and my older sisters were a bit unhappy that they had to cover most of the bills. Overall the environment in my home was negative even though the best outcome of this story was my mother's health being fully restored. .
From this experience, I realized my parents sacrificed pretty much their lives in order to keep us happy. As their children we took advantage of their support and only thought about ourselves. We got used to the fact that my parents were constantly providing us materialistic items and believed that that was true happiness. I understood that my parents weren't going to receive their job anytime soon and we have to be the adults and make my parents proud by showing them we can do what they did for us.
