My grandpas story

I don't know much of my family history and stories except for my one grandpa. The reason why is because he's always told me stories about himself growing up during the depression in Harlem. Whenever he tells me them I feel like I'm learning a part of history and at the same time it makes me thankful for what I have today.

Both of my great grandparents came over to the united states from italy during the early 1900's. They ended up settling in a mostly Italian neighborhood in east Harlem. My grandpa had 8 other brothers and sisters that all had to live in a small apartment. He told me how about the depression was and how everyone was poor. He even said his teacher would bring him sandwiches to school because sometimes he wouldn't have any lunch.

Almost every Christmas he tells me to be happy with whatever I get and he jokes around saying he'd be lucky if he got coal for christmas because at least it'd keep him warm. He said one year he actually got an orange for Christmas. Yeah an orange, something that someone would have for breakfast on a normal day. So you should always be happy with whatever you have because someone out there has it much worse off.

This is the new age

One of the most common phrases my Grandfather uses is "You kids don't know what it was like, you don't know how good you have it". The older generation doesn't realize how much things have changed and although I havn't fought in any wars, I still think life is difficult. What my grandfather doesn't realize is that school is much harder nowadays and students are held to a much higher standard. Students are required to give so much time and effort just to get by with a "B". Another thing my Grandparents don't realize is that I work part time and go to school. In between that, I have to squeeze in time to go to the gym. Nobody really exercised back when my grandparents were my age. Now we are expected to exercise in order to live a healthy life and live longer. My father's entire family passed away before I was born due to health factors. Because of this, I make it a priority to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. Having a part time job and going to school full time is a full load and leaves almost no free time to do things that I want. It really annoys me when my grandparents say negative things to me if I go to the beach in the summer just because they expect me to be exactly like my oldest cousin, who went to Harvard, and has no personality whatsoever. If they only saw how many college students don't actually work. Of course if I only went to school and didn't work, my grades would be better but I'm held responsible for all my finances and it would be impossible for me not to work. Quite frankly, I'm happy with having average grades and at the same time working on my career. Work experience is one of the most important things when working towards your actual career. Everything is so different in this generation and we shouldn't be held to the same expectations. I havn't fought in a war, but I have different life experiences than my Grandfather and I wish my Grandparents could see that. Because they are so old it is difficult to change their opinions and therefore not even worth arguing with them and it bothers me that they can't see the other side of it.