How humble can poverty be?

Text/Miss Xichen

Speaking of the word "poor", I deliberately checked its origin to see why this word makes people difficult.

The result of the search is that this character first appeared in the writings of the Warring States Period, from the acupoint and bow sounds. From the hole, the original meaning is an earthen room, referring to the narrowness of the living room; the original meaning of the bowing sound is to bend the body forward, but here it refers to bending due to the narrowness of the earthen room.

The general meaning is that in a small space, people need to bend down, which means that there is no end to the space.

It turns out that the ancients were so wise that they had long seen the essence of poverty. It is not unreasonable to bend down and look humble.

01

The word "poor" has appeared frequently in my life since childhood, and it still lingers around me to this day.

When I was a child, I often heard my mother say: "Our family is poor, you have to live up to your expectations and not let others laugh."

My dad said: "You have to study hard, I I always studied very well when I was in school. If my family hadn't been poor when I was young..."

I thought at that time, when will I stop being poor? I want to make a lot of money when I grow up. Will this solve many problems?

After all, the ideal is very fulfilling, and the reality is that as long as I no longer ask them for money, it is the greatest comfort.

When people are poor, they will become frugal. I clearly remember that most of the clothes we had when we were young were leftovers worn by our cousins. The most common thing I heard was that my mother bought it for just a dime. She spent two cents at the door struggling with the vegetable vendor for a long time, until the vendor gave in, and then she returned with the vegetables, as if she had won the battle.

Sometimes I find it unbelievable, so I persuade her: "Isn't it just a few cents? As for yelling at others for a long time?"

My mother said: "You kid What do you know? Save a dime for one pound, a dollar for ten pounds... You still have to go to school, otherwise where would I get money for you?”

I don’t know why she seems to make sense every time. , but going around and around is inseparable from learning. I don’t have much confidence, so I can’t refute.

02

When I was in school, I never had pocket money. I was often envious of other children who could buy snacks. When I asked my mother for money, my mother would say: "We don't have any money for you." It’s not that I don’t know, I can study, don’t think about anything else.”

In my house, I don’t even need to buy notebooks and pens, because my dad has approved a lot of notebooks and pens in advance and put them in the drawer. Here, besides buying papers, my mother interrupted my thoughts.

After that, because I lived on campus in middle and high school, my mother would give me a certain amount of living expenses every time I went home. But basically if there was a surplus, I would ask for a little less, and then tell me the amount of money I had. She, sometimes she would give me an extra twenty.

In my senior year of high school, I was under a lot of pressure to study and my hair fell out in bunches. I even wondered if I had some terminal illness, so I called my mother.

My mother and my father came to school the next day and asked for leave from the class teacher. Suddenly, they found that my mother was willing to spend money and bought me a lot of clothes and hundreds of medicines. When we left, they comforted me and told me not to be too stressed, as if I understood them instantly.

It turns out that they know that life is not easy without money, and they don’t want their children to grow up like them, facing the loess and back to the sky, so they save whatever they can to encourage their children to study hard and be able to go to school. To another world.

However, even so, because I have been taught the concept of poverty in my family since I was a child, I have never dared to spend money randomly.

03

How humble can you be if you are poor? I think most people should be like this:

I probably broke up with my girlfriend because she asked to eat hairy crabs, because he didn’t know that it was normal for her to eat hairy crabs from a wealthy family, but for him, she borrowed a lot of money. My friend's money is worth a few months' worth of food.

Probably because I had to endure the scolding from my boss in order to support my family. Even though I was not convinced, I had to say with a smile: "I will definitely not make the same mistake next time!"

Probably in order to promote one of his shoe-washing artifacts, he was not allowed to try it for free to strangers passing by again and again. He stood up and squatted down again and again, and occasionally received cold remarks from others.

What about myself?

What I can think of is that when I was in college, I went out to work part-time with my classmates. They had a big meal in a restaurant at noon, and they said that the money they earned today was just enough for a meal, but in fact it was only fifty yuan. money. And I ate instant noodles at noon in the shop where I worked.

Once I needed a computer to browse the web, so I asked the girl in my dormitory to borrow it, but before I opened it, she said, "Don't click on it if you don't know how!" and wiped it. After this incident, I worked hard to save money and bought a computer of my own.

Sometimes I feel envious when I see them spending hundreds of dollars to buy a pair of shoes they like. Thinking that this is more than half a month’s living expenses, forget it.

I went out to play and entered the scenic spot. I just walked around briefly, had a hasty lunch, and bought two bottles of water. Apart from leaving footprints, I didn’t buy any strange things, and then returned to school. .

Then go to the canteen to eat the cheapest meal, the most common place to go to the clothing store is the discount area, go to the hospital to save a dollar or two, walk as long as you can, just as exercise...

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To be poor, it is indeed easy for people to feel humble, but these years of life have also taught me to be frugal.

04

Being poor may make my material life not rich, but I can also see the warmth and warmth of the world. It is precisely because I am in this state that I often make myself clearer about what I want to do. Want anything.

I really like what Fu Seoul said in the debate on "Should parents tell their children that their family is not rich" in "Qi Pa Shuo": "True inferiority is better than false self-confidence, even in stones. Tenacious grass grows, but confident flowers cannot bloom in soap bubbles."

Now, I am still very poor. I am shopping for clothes in a clothing store, and I hear the salesperson say the price is five thousand. , after discounting three thousand, I will run away immediately.

I was still thinking: This is my living expenses for several months, I really can’t afford it.

I still have to prioritize the items in the Taobao shopping cart, which ones are necessary and which ones are unnecessary, before placing an order.

When I go out for fun, if it’s nearby, I’ll walk, if it’s further away, I’ll take the bus, and if it’s further away, there’s the subway. When I go home, even if the high-speed rail is faster, I’ll still choose the train. Maybe it’s due to inertia!

But I will also take time to go out to watch movies a few times, have dinner with friends, go to the surrounding scenic spots, relax and enjoy the present moment.

Some people say that poverty will limit people's imagination. Perhaps they mean that the poor are short-sighted and can only see the present and not the future. This has some truth, but it is not entirely correct.

Is poverty terrible?

Of course it’s scary, but a poor person who doesn’t work hard and does nothing is even scarier. Although poverty sometimes makes you feel humble, you have to accept it and change it through your own efforts step by step.

As the saying goes, a person is poor but his ambition is not short. People can be arrogant but they must have pride. Pay attention to your duties, be down-to-earth, and when you do everything well enough, your life can still change. Let’s work hard together!