Congratulations, you've been through a lot and came out nicely. I believe that people take for granted situations that are not... Granted. A a 5-year old who l

Congratulations, you've been through a lot and came out nicely. I believe that people take for granted situations that are not... Granted. A a 5-year old who lives in Bronx and his mother sells drugs for a living, doesn't have a choice. By the time he is 15, his future is already seriously broken 99 out of 100 times. Of course there are exceptions, but it's like startups... For every team that succeeds there are 1.000 smart, interesting, extremely hard-working team that fails for a huge variety of reasons. IMHO having a parent that will teach you how to face problems, life, etc. is more valuable than money per-se. You had your mother who was too proud, so she fought. Now you seem to have the same stance towards difficulties. Other children do not have mother like yours. Maybe we owe more to the society than we like to reckon[1]. [1] http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/10/clash-of-autonomy-and-interdependence.html http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/10/cla...