
Originally Posted by
QuickSciFi
I grew up in a totalitarian regime. From age 10 to 14, I would go hungry for weeks at a time, having to hunt doves and other wild game on my own just to acquire some protein for myself and my younger brother. I'd rummage through fallen airplane tires to make for a sling shot, and would use old batteries for scrap as their lead would suffice for pellets. I'd carry the lead pieces I had hammered into pellets in my mouth in the hunt at 6:30am, because I couldn't even afford pockets. I later had to travel with my father through five other different third world countries for four months to escape this, evading military guerillas through mountains at gun point; only to be handcuffed at age 14 to my own father and put in jail for four days for the crime of being an immigrant in the United States. I was the tallest kid in my classroom at age 14 and, yet, a mere 85 pounds from the starvation I suffered. My father had to go back twenty years in his medical profession and re-study everything to re-validate his Medical License while working two jobs to bring-over the rest of my family (my brother, mother and two sisters). For years, I walked miles to school and back, because I couldn't even afford the bus fare. I've had to work two-to-three jobs at a time just to get myself through High School, my A.A. Degree, a Bachelors, a Masters Degree and now a Doctorate.