Most days after you close up and ride the city bus home, you can’t help but think about how far you’ve come.

Your childhood was no where near easy. Some people really shouldn’t be bringing children into the world. Some people, like your parents. They never cared about you, most of the time didn’t even acknowledge your existence. They ignored everything; medical care, education, your hygiene.

To escape everything, you started a job extremely young. It was difficult having to work at a young age, especially with your lack of education. You could barely read and write, which made it hard working with customers at the salon.

Pushing aside learning proper education, you put your energy into your job. 12 was when you started doing hair, 16 when you explored nails. The money you worked hard for, was often stolen from your parents, so your boss bought a safe for you to use at work.

Within a decade, you signed your contract, now owning your very own spa salon. All those years spent saving money paid off, literally.

Days went by slow. You had customers that were patient, and others that called you horrid names for not knowing how to read and write. You were completely dumb; you could read small words and write your name, but that’s it.

Today was one of the bad days. Simon decided to treat himself to a fresh cut. Years of fighting led him to ignore the most important things, his wellbeing. All goes well with him until it’s time to pay.

He wrote you the check for his haircut and handed it to you. To make sure everything was correct, you called a coworker over to read the check out loud. This heavily stirred with Simon’s lack of patience.

“Are you stupid? You’re a grown human being, you seriously can’t read?”