Christmas was no better. I knew that our teacher would open her gifts in front of everyone. How could my hand-drawn picture of a snowman hold up against Crystal's store-bought sweater or the fancy bottle of perfume from Lois? Sometimes I would be "sick" on the day we had to bring our favorite holiday gift to school for show-and-tell.
This elaborates on a such a sad reality of those in low-income families. This affects so much more than education and resources, but can drastically affect mental health and overall quality of life. What was supposed to be a good and magical happy holiday, turned into hiding away from the world to avoid the felt embarrassment from your classmates due to issues out of your control.