That’s right, I said it- my family is rich. We’re lucky, or I guess I should say #Blessed. Do I have a lot of money in the bank? Nope. Do I drive a fancy new car? No. Am I sitting in my living room right now looking at all my old furniture, a lot of it passed down from someone, wishing I could update it? Yes, I am but that’s not going to happen anytime soon because I am not financially rich. Financially stable is actually a stretch and I cringe when I see people wearing hats that say things like “put it on my husband’s tab” clearly implying they get to live carelessly at the expense of their husband who must have a lot of money? I am not linking that amazon link, find it on your own. Not too long ago I would have considered the above examples as someone who was lucky. Rich. What an interesting word. I wasn’t raised around wealth, that actually just made me laugh thinking about how far from it I was raised! My roots come from the Appalachian Mountains where I am the granddaughter of generations of coal miners and moonshiners. I come from a long line of hard-working blue-collar people who have broken generational curses with each generation. Little by little, we have all overcome things that most people get trapped in. My kid’s school has an art contest every year with a different theme. This year the theme is “My Heritage” which is what got this thought process flowing for me. My kids have been to Logan, WV where I was raised, but they were too young to really remember any of it or notice the stark difference of the impoverished coal town compared to the city that they have only known- where they live. They don’t know how far their grandfather traveled and worked to make sure his grandkids wouldn’t grow up in poverty. I am very fortunate to be living and raising my kids in a beautiful and thriving city. We live in a normal size house where they all have their own bedroom and bathroom. No sharing with their entire family. When they get home from school they have food in the refrigerator. Do they like all of it? Not usually, but it’s there and it was shopped for by a mom who loves them and wants them to have protein and fiber! There is the occasional sweet treat on the counter too. In the summer the AC is set at 73. In the winter the heat is on. When it’s time to go to sports, they have name brand water bottles to fill, and a mom telling them to hurry up and drives them across town to sit there and cheer them on. Their grandparents come too because they live just down the street and are involved in their lives. When I’m in a bind, I can call one of these grandparents to give a kid a lift. Or a friend who knows they can also call me when they need the favor returned. Recently my son needed a pair of cleats to use for a weeklong baseball summer camp. Instead of buying a new pair we just borrowed a pair from a friend, and we carpooled for the week. Seems simple but I didn’t have any of that as a kid, so I know these things are not a given in life. Some things you can buy, some things you can’t.

When we moved to Florida my dad got very sick and my mom moved out. We lived in a very small house. Four people in 900 square feet to be exact. One summer the air went out and my dad didn’t have the money to fix it so I slept with a box fan in the window and pushed my bed next to the window, then took a shower at 5 am to stay cool until I got to school. I don’t remember how long we didn’t have air conditioning but that is one thing I will not take for granted in life. I rode the school bus home to an empty house. We didn’t have cable tv and we lived in the middle of nowhere. I watched a lot of VHS tapes and went for walks. Nobody was able to take us to sports so we didn’t play any. I had no idea until I became a parent that you just drove down to the city building and signed up for a sport. I just assumed it was for certain families who were asked to join a league because they had athletic kids. I went on to learn that is actually a thing, but it’s called travel ball and I’m still not in that club-but by choice. I don’t know how our financial situation really was growing up but I know I wasn’t the same as my friends or the kids on the bus that were dropped off in the gated communities before my stop. Those were the ones I thought were rich. I saw them walk to their mom’s cars that were waiting at the bus stop and I actually wondered why they didn’t just drive to the school. I get that part now lol. It sounds like it was a sad time in life, and that’s because it was. I don’t blame my dad because I know he was trying and he never gave up. If I learned anything from my childhood, it is perseverance. I watched my dad get up every single time he was knocked down and plow through it. That’s another lesson you can’t buy. I think I would have been ok if we stayed in WV but I am also thankful for Ormond Beach and don’t want to know what my life would be like without the people I have in it now. That right there, is my rich. I may be wearing the same Target workout clothes that are 10 years young (sounds better than old! try it!) and grocery shopping sucks right now, but I can do it. Kid’s sports fees keep adding up, but we can pay them. I have an annoying earache that has been bothering me for a few days and I’m about to head to the dr to get it checked out because I have health insurance that allows me to do that. Then I am going to get to the school pick up line early and read my book that I’m really into while I wait for the kids to come out. To me, this is the equivalent of typing “I will be packing the suitcases and boarding the private jet to fly to Aspen for the weekend”. I have no clue where Aspen is located. How freaking lucky am I to be able to be living this life of basic! I am healthy, my kids are happy and healthy therefore I am rich.

Of course one day it may be cool to pack a suitcase and board a private plane to a private island… actually that has a pretty bad stigma attached to it at this moment in history.. so maybe a different destination much more public. I do hope for more for my kids, just as my dad did for his. I hope that their “rich” is exactly what they want it to be and pray they know it is always a state of mind.

“True wealth is about having a rich heart, a wise mind, and a few wants rather than just a heavy purse” this quote may just be something a poor person said but I’m here for it.