Keep Fighting

Keep Fighting

            Italy is famous for it’s history, it’s food and it’s beautiful cities. Despite of all that beauty, people in the world may not really know how my country changed nineteen years ago. In 1999, the new Government was elected with Romano Prodi as President. Like in the U.S., the presidency term is four years, but Romano Prodi was removed from office after just two years. President Prodi chose to be part of European Union, and that was one of the reasons why he was removed. The President didn’t prevent the risk of changing from Lira to Euro, and he especially didn’t prevent the crisis that befell the older people, who had to figure out the value. The economy experienced a big decline, and Italians were desperate. The Euro had a big impact on low-income families like mine. Moreover, it wasn’t our choice but was made from the government without a democratic vote.

I was sixteen years old when one day after school I saw my mother crying desperately with a letter from the bank in her hands. I learned, sometime later, that this was due to the conversion from Lira to Euro, and how that conversion put us in debt. My two big brothers were close to my mother that day, and both were trying to comfort her. Vincenzo, my oldest brother, told me to come close to my mother, ”The family needs to talk” he said. I will never forget my mother’s eyes full of tears, and her voice mumbling trying to explain our debt to the bank had doubled. I knew that one Euro was double of one Lira, but I didn’t understand at that time why we had to pay double. In addition, the cost of living in Italy was doubled. Despite the fact of the conversion, the problem was because the Italian salaries converted to Euro didn’t double. My mother started to receive only the fifty percent of her salary, and it wasn’t enough for four people. Many bills were paid late, and my mother wasn’t eligible anymore to saving money.

After six months without paying our debt, the bank repossessed our house for half of our debt. My family and I slept inside the car for one months before moving to a rental apartment to save some money. My brother Vincenzo dropped out of college and he went to work with my mother on the farm. However, our situation with the bank didn’t change. The money wasn’t enough. Some days, we ate one meal a day trying to save more money. The electricity was cut off because my mother couldn’t pay several bills. She asked my second brother Emiliano and me to drop out of school and go to work, because having two more salaries would help her to pay the bills. My mother after my father passed away, knew the life without him would not be easy, but she never thought it could be hard like that.

My family and I were determined, and we fought hard to get our life back. I was working three jobs to have enough money to help my family and kept dreaming to finish my high school. My goal was to build my instruction and give back to my mother the most important thing the government took away from her, her happiness.  Moving to United State was one of my dreams to have a better life for my family and me. I was focused on achieving my goal. After I graduated and took the international Bodyguard license, I moved to Unite States. It was hard to leave my family and my friends. Moreover, I didn’t know if my dream could work. 

When I think of my childhood, sometimes I cry because my family was poor and couldn’t pay the bills or afford daily supplies. Today I have a wonderful life with a good job. I can help my family. Furthermore, I can have the opportunity to change from Bodyguard career to a Police Officer career. I keep working hard and trying to reach my goals. In my opinion joining the European Union was a big mistake. Moreover, the economic data of the Italian low-income family still demonstrates after almost twenty years that Italian families are poor and can’t save money. Nevertheless, the United State has given me a better future, but I don’t know how my life could be if Italy didn’t become part of European Union. Would I have emigrated? I will never know.