When I was 18 I found out that my parents were not as wealthy as they had led me to believe.
I was planning on going away to school until they sat me down and explained how they had been living beyond their means for years. They could not afford to send me to school, and furthermore I would have to move out because they were being evicted. Talk about your life decreasing a bit in a single moment! Up until this moment I had enjoyed a life of leisure, but now I had to worry about money and survival, because I was on my own. In high school I was more focused on weight lifting and soccer than I was about grades. I assumed that between my weight lifting ability, my talent with sport, combined with my parents money that grades wouldn’t be an issue. The joke was on me, because the gym was not enough to get me to school without having a lot of cash. I could have gotten discouraged, but instead I doubled down on what I was great at and applied for a job at the gym. I was too young to be a weightlifting coach at the time, but I started off as a personal trainer to get some experience. Although I miss being rich and having that level of comfort, I do love my task as a personal trainer. It’s great work, I just wish the gym would pay me a little more. They say money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy peace.