via Huffington Post by Alyssa Ramos I grew up poor, and by “poor”, I mean I had a single mother who made about $40k a year and had four kids to feed, two of which she adopted before I was born, when my birth-father was still around. I remember being self-conscious about not always having new clothes, using the reduced lunch coupons at school, and having to take the bus to daycare because my mom had to work long hours…Oh, and the tiny fact that I didn’t have a dad, because back then it was “weird” if your parents were divorced. But do you know what else I remember? I was happy. I had a yard to play in, a loving mother who would let me keep any animal I brought home (I had a pet chicken once…), and siblings to…fight with. I wasn’t used to having expensive things or getting to go on awesome vacations, but I learned how to do things with a little bit of money, and got excited ab...