Coming into college, I always knew I would meet many people from all different walks of life; however, I didn't realize how great a lot of these people really seem to have had it. Of course, I know the grass is not always greener on the other side, yet it still blows my mind with what privileges some of these "young adults" or college students have grown up with.

Mommy this
Mommy that
Daddy this
Daddy that

Whatever these kids needed they got. Which from their standpoint may not be the case, but if they were to sleep in the bed I slept in every night growing up, some would really know how easy they have it.

Whenever I run low on money here at school – I cannot just call my mom and ask for more. Why? Because that's not how life works. As an adult, one must learn to budget and if that means I need to live off three hundred dollars for sixteen weeks; I will live off of three hundred dollars in the most sophisticated way for that semester of school. Just because I am going to the mall doesn't mean I can call up my mom for money to spend. In fact, my mom will go out of her way to tell me not to spend my own money that I earned to use it on things that matter, not that Michael Kors purse that everyone is talking about.

The most difficult time was when I had to give up the sport I loved, because it was simply too much.The most difficult time was not being able to let my puppies run wild in the back yard for the fear that brokers would know my family was home, or not even being able to answer the door when the doorbell rings because you think someone is going to tell you you have to leave your home, that's difficult, not having enough money to buy groceries, or put gas in your car, or even pay the bills, that's difficult as well, but not having enough money to get your nails done is not.

Growing up with just enough taught me much more than how to be responsible. It taught me what love is, and most importantly it taught me how to love the right way. Love isn't in what you buy someone else to see a smile light up on their face, love is about apologizing and meaning it, love is about fighting with the person "for better and for worse" and although most days are a struggle, you can still lay next to them to sleep at night. Love is having people to lean on, wallow on, and cuddle on at all times for the day. Through the good and the bad – the hard and the easy – the brilliance and the dumb; love is to be able to drink a cup of coffee out of your store bought maker, not a dinner downtown.

Many of you can disagree with me, and argue and tell me that I don't know your lives, and you're correct, I don't. But while you swipe your daddy's credit card to buy your meal, please do tell me what kind of job you have been working since you were sixteen to pay for extra things, like the shoes on your feet. Oh, right...

At the end of the day, it does not matter how many bankers called my home, or how many knocks we had pounding on our door, my family was and still is my safe haven, my teachers, my mistake makers, and my fixer uppers. I have gone through a hell that many other humans will never have to be able to say they experienced, but because of our struggle we were able to love, and many families who wave around their wads of cash don't even get an "I love you" before stepping outside their house doors, and that to me is all I'll ever need.