Reality Strikes Anonymous

July 19, 2012. On that day, 23 people lost their lives in a violent shooting. I was less than 100 miles away from this, sitting in the Cinemark Theater dressed up as Two Face as my friends and I waited eagerly for the same movie; unknown to me was that another blow had struck at my own home. Ten minutes before it began, I got a message from my mother staying “I have some bad news, I’ll tell you later.” I thought this was bizarre; it made no sense that she would say that. Confused and a bit worried, I relegated the message to little importance as I got caught up in the excitement of the theatre again. The lights dimmed and the show began.

After seeing The Dark Knight Rises, I returned home to a shock I had never imagined. My dad had left because he was ashamed to tell us he had made a huge mistake. Over the past five years, my dad had not told us that we were slowly slipping financially after he lost his job. When he got another job, he was convinced he could fix the problem. He did not want to let his family down, he wanted to see us all happy, and he wanted us to get everything we wanted. Yet before he knew, we were sinking into a hole of debt. All of our money was gone: all of it.

July 19, 2012 my eyes were opened to the...