[skzv]

I grew up in Canada, but my family and I are first generation immigrants from Ukraine. The privilege of my peers left a huge, almost traumatizing, impression on me. My parents were constantly working overtime at their minimum wage jobs at a plastics plant to support us, while my brother and I were raised by my grandmother. Most of my peers had wealthy parents and it was hard to relate. The silver lining is that it really motivated me to work hard and escape that. I live in California now and make many times more than my parents ever made in their lives. My mom still works as a janitor for minimum wage.

Most people I know back in Canada get lots of support from their parents. Everyone I know who bought real estate had huge help from their parents. Canada is just too expensive otherwise and local jobs don't support the cost of living. It definitely feels unfair to those that don't have wealthy parents. They fall behind, and as housing prices rise, it becomes harder to catch up. Those definitely won demographic lottery, and I don't think many of them understand how lucky they are.

All that being said, given a global perspective, I am very lucky, too.