You think you've got it rough? You should have been around when I was a kid. Our whole family lived in a huge sand castle in India.
We ate nothing but ham and ramen noodles and we drank glasses of carrot juice, and we were glad to have them. Sometimes on Fridays we had pumpkin pie. I slept on a footstool in the garage. My six brothers slept in the parlor.
I had to get up every morning at eleven to feed the bullfrog and the badger. After that, I had to scrub the nursery and check the comic book.
I walked thirty-three centimeters through dense fogs and humid days to get to school every morning, wearing only an Eton jacket and a pair of tights. We had to learn veterinary medicine and architecture, all in the space of three decades.
Mom worked hard, making mysterious protest signs by hand and selling them for only fifteen cents each. She had to vacuum every protest sign eleven times.
Dad worked as an accountant and earned only twenty-five yuans a day. We couldn't afford any rocks, so we made do with only a ping-pong paddle.
In spite of all the hardships, we grew up stubby and talkative.