Facing Adversities

There is an adage that the good comes with the bad. The global economic collapse hit all over the world, so many people faced financial problems. My family and I could not avoid this adversity. My parents invested in real estate and prepared to run a Korean traditional restaurant, but those things failed because of the global economic collapse. My family and I had to struggle against this hardship together. This event led to my family’s financial problems, the deterioration of my parents’ health, and the postponement of my study abroad. The global economic collapse made my family go through a big ordeal.

My parents were heavily in debt because my parents’ business suffered and their investments failed after the global economic collapse. My father invested in real estate and bought an apartment for our future. We expected the value of the apartment to increase more than the funds that my father had invested. However, the value of the apartment had a sudden decline owing to the economic collapse, so my father did not want to sell at that price. He even had to levy a lot of property taxes, for we had two apartments. Also, my mother was not able to continue running her restaurant. My mother borrowed the money from her acquaintances to manage the restaurant, but it was a huge burden on her. My mother was supposed to pay back the money to her friends, but she could not afford it. Thus, my father eventually took the loss and sold the apartment to help my mother. These investment and business failures not only caused financial problems for my family, but caused another problem as well.

My parents’ health began to be aggravated because of the investment and the business failures. My father made a big effort to pay it back his loss from the investment failure, and he also supported my mother’s work. My father had to work too hard and got a lot of pressure, but he never showed his feelings to my mother, my brother, my sister, or me. Finally, he had a heart attack. My father already had heart disease and a hardened artery. Even though he had to avoid a lot of stress and pressure, he did not. He felt responsible for caring for us. When my mother heard of her husband’s news, she was very surprised. My mother was weak originally; besides, she had experienced a hard time because of the failure of her restaurant and received my father’s help. She thought it was all her fault. This thinking caused her thyroid to act up, and she had aches all over her body for no reason. Because of the global economic collapse, my parents’ health was compromised, and then it influenced me.

Due to the above reasons of the financial problem and my parents’ health issue, my study abroad was postponed indefinitely. I was not able to prepare for studying abroad because my parents could not afford to support me financially or physically. I had to take care of my parents, especially my father. Caring for my parents was left to me because my father needed to rest to recover his health, and my mother’s health was compromised. At that time, my brother was between jobs. It was very hard to get good jobs because of the global economic collapse. Only my sister was working for the family. For this reason, I could not focus on the preparation of my studies. Studying abroad requires a lot of money. Before the global economic collapse, my parents were able to support my study plans, but it was impossible to do it then. I seriously considered giving up my plans to study abroad due to my family’s situation. Fortunately, I was able to prepare my study abroad again. My parents’ health began to recover, and my big brother found a job.

The global economic collapse shook the world. Many major companies suffered from bankruptcy, and many families had financial problems. My family and I went through serious hardships; however, our family bond was stronger. I like this expression that iron gets stronger if it keeps getting hit constantly. The global economic collapse hit my family, but we were able to maintain very strong bonds. Nevertheless, the effect of the crisis still lingers our lives. My family has not overcome the adversity perfectly, but we still struggle against those obstacles. This situation helped me realize the importance and gratitude and gratitude and my family.