Until I met my wife, I hadn&#x27;t realized exactly the fortune I had with my family.  My parents were teachers and really understood the value of education.  We came from a modest background, but it was stable and they did push me to focus on school.  I went to a really good school (yay need based financial aid), have a great job that pays me well.<p>On the other hand, we have my wife.  She is smarter than me, but went 7 different schools as her family moved from place to place before she finally dropped out, worked retail as she essentially raised one of her sisters as she scraped by.  In a more stable environment, she&#x27;d have almost certainly ended up in law or business school.<p>She now really tries to provide some sort of stability, and encourage focusing on schoolwork with her nieces and nephews, who are in danger of repeating the history of poverty.<p>Seeing that makes me realize how very lucky I was to be born into the family I was, and everything I took for granted really isn&#x27;t just what &quot;normal&quot; is.