Green isn't Everything

I am not

someone who grew up in a rich family. I didn't get a brand new car for my 16th birthday and I don't have unlimited funding to go to whichever college I please. Growing up my parents were separated. They have been since I can remember. My dad is a hard working man who raised four kids and goes to work at the crack of dawn to do so. My mother went from job to job and we moved around from a renters house to another renters house. My step mom is a wonderful woman who would do anything for her kids and she works at a job that is far less than her dream job to give us kids whatever we need.My parents taught me what hard working means. What it means to earn everything you want. Me and my siblings earned the things we wanted by doing chores or helping where ever we could. Neither of my parents were poor but they didn't have a money tree in their backyard either. We ate a lot of Ramen noodles, and we also ate a lot of good food too. Having this type of upbringing taught me that money isn't what I should live for. Of course my parents push me to get a high paying job and go to college but that is because they don't want to see me struggle, to have to worry about money like they do. The thing is, I don't care. I don't care about money at all. I will never be one who searches for a rich husband or chooses a job because of how much it pays. I don't think all the money in the world could bring me happiness. I wouldn't mind being broke if it meant traveling. If it meant living my life outside of an office, exploring. You need money to travel but you don't need much. The memories you could make are worth it all. I have never traveled very far from my home town. The farthest I have been is California and Arizona. I want to change that. I wouldn't mind not knowing where I was going to stay, not knowing how to pay for my flight home. I just want to learn all I can from other people, other cities. I want to visit sights I have only seen in pictures and if that means being broke I will be happy to be it. You can't take money to your grave and I think people forget that. I want memories, I don't want to worry about a piece of paper when I could be worrying about who I am going to take with me on my adventures. We get so wrapped up in money that money drives us to live. I don't feel like that is right. I think that your life and making it fun and happy is what should drive you to live. The hardest part for me is being scared of the unknown, I always have to know what is going to happen and I believe that has held me back from accomplishing a lot of my dreams in my life. I always have to have a plan because I am scared otherwise. I would like to overcome this and stop planning and start living. I recently met someone who is the complete opposite of me in that aspect, He has stopped planning and started living. I am both jealous and in awe of him. I recently told him my dreams of going to Disneyland for my 21st birthday. He was excited and said lets make it happen!! Now my dream that I thought was impossible because I am to afraid, is becoming real. We are both saving up to go to not only Disneyland but also LegoLand and Sea world. I have never thought my dream would happen. I was always afraid of not having enough money to go, or that something would happen. I was basically making up excuses for reasons why I couldn't, but I can. I can and I will. Stop letting money be your deciding factor on if you're happy or not. Go out there and grab your happiness. I promise you don't need money as much as you think you do to do so. Anything is possible if you want it bad enough, with or without money.