My Personal Experience: The Socioeconomic Status Of My Life

Since I grow up in a warm but overprotective household, I remember how stressful was to relate with my peers when I started elementary school. A combination of physical and cognitive factors seemed to contribute to my struggles. First, I had a fragile constitution and I hated sports and some exercises that involved physical contact or violence. Second, my introvert character contributed to prevent me to make new friends. I was a timid, suspicious, cautious and not competitive at all. Thus, the result of refusing physical confrontation was to be the favorite victim of bullying. I was considered less ‘masculine’, and often my peers questioned my own male identity. Unfortunately, I was beat up several times by some of my peers and these traumatic
I was disoriented, with no clues of available careers for my future. I would like to think that several dynamics in my life were characterized by the socioeconomic status of my family of origin. We are the classic example of a middle-class family in northern Italy. Both my parents came from humble families of farmers that shaped their vision of life. In their expectations for my future, economic stability through a permanent job was at the top of their list. Thinking about high levels of education was not even an option in my house; my parents never encouraged me to go to college or to find my vocation. On the contrary, I grow up with the perpetual teaching of being happy with what I had and not being envious of other families’ wealth. By thinking to have limited options, dreams, and ambitions, I ended up choosing a technical institute to become an electrician like my father. The consequences of that choice impact all my 5 years of high school. Lack of motivation and a deeper dissatisfaction stopped me in pursuing high grades and, consequently, considering university. At that time, I really thought I was a bad student. I remember a sense of intellectual inferiority towards other classmates. Unfortunately, I was not aware of my full potential and abilities in other disciplines, like
I used to attend the same rural Brethren Church of my parents, which was conservative and fundamentalist. Pastors and elders emphasized an unconditional faith in God and in Scripture. Rational and logic arguments were banned as mundane philosophies. People lived their life with the fear and pressure of being excommunicated. Today, I consider that church a toxic environment, but at that time the fear of not being a ‘perfect’ Christian approved by God kept me there like in a cage. It was a community with low expectations from the ‘world’. I remember preaching with hatred against mundane people or unbelievers who were following the devil by doing immoral sins. I felt suffocated and tired. A huge personal crisis led me to find a Christian counsellor. He was and still is a great example of an authentic Christian in my life. He helped in such a wonderful way in a very difficult moment of loneliness. I had never seen a humble and true person like him among the Christians I used to know. I think I was tired about hypocrisy, pride and falsity inside the church. However, when I met him, I easily recognised a tremendous frankness in every field of his life. He was the same person in all contests: family, church, workplace. Furthermore, I have never heard judgments by him to someone else life but only a real desire to encourage and support