Thanks @damarth for giving this plan to share my story.
My story is similar to that of every Nigerian child you will see in the streets. I was born in a period of difficulty and as a child I was very sick and my birth caused my mother great illness. We both survived and today I am what I am because of her and whatever I will become will be as a result of her relentless efforts to always provide even when it seemed impossible. Growing up as a child was fun even though we didn't have the mobile phones and all sorts of gadgets then, the absence of these enabled us to spend quality time with our pals and I grew up in a house filled with kids. There you'll see the amazing artists, the good footballers and the braniacs and we all bonded well.
At a point in my life I got involved in street trading(hawking), I was about ten years old then and it was a life changing experience. There was this joy I felt when someone will purchase just 1 sachet of water from me and it was just amazing that I could feel so happy for something so little. These days I sometimes patronise street hawkers just to give them a taste of that joy I felt. I didn't do it for long though because my mother didn't support the idea of me hawking in the street.
Thank God now that things are better and my younger ones won't have to do that. Times have really changed but to conclude I'll say experience is the best teacher