Overcoming A Hardship In Angela's Ashes

Overcoming a hardship is a difficult thing to do that shows strength and determination in one’s character. In the novel Angela’s Ashes, multiple characters throughout the book overcome their own hardships. For instance, Frank McCourt has multiple negative things thrown at him all through his childhood and teenage years. Such as, his father being a constant drunk forcing his mother to beg for food from the priest’s leftovers. Though Frank did not overcome this in the most legal ways at times he was still able to provide for his family. Another character who had to overcome obstacles was Angela herself. She had no support from her husband, who could be found drinking away any pay he made that day. Even when begging was frowned upon she still did what she had to provide for her children. Hardships are not just faced in books; they are a reality.
Hardship struck my family in the winter of my junior year, my father had no job for months during the winter season.
I remember when I found out that he no longer had a job, the first thought to my mind was what are we going to do? Though my mom makes good money at her accounting job we were surely not accustomed to just receiving her income to keep us afloat. As the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months the atmosphere in my household became tense and worried. As the weeks progressed my dad started receiving unemployment which helped pay for the expenses. During these winter months I always felt horrible asking to borrow money from my parents, my dad’s unemployment not only affected him and my mom but it affected me as well. It was hard not knowing when my father would get a job, I know that it was stressful on him. Through these months he stayed at home doing many tasks to keep himself occupied while waiting for the call saying he got a job. Since he is in a union he was put on a waiting list for available jobs. His unemployment not only affected us financially but emotionally as
well. During these months I started to become angry, how come my dad was getting a job? What made those other men more qualified than my dad? There were days my mom came home with a hopefully look on her face, “Any calls today?” She would ask my dad, he would say nope and go back to what he was doing, the hopeful look on my mother’s face faded. Eventually she would stop asking. I would sit up at night wondering what would happen next, would my dad ever get another job? I knew that I had to have faith in my dad, he was a hard worker, he would get work. Then one lucky day March my dad received a call asking for him to start a job beginning the next Monday. A big weight was lifted off of all of shoulders, everything would start to become normal. As my dad started working my parents became happier, since my dad was bringing in good money there was no concern about paying bills anymore. Though this was a short term thing that went on in my life, it will forever affect it. I now know how important it is to never give up, if an obstacle or hardship comes your way you have to conquer and over come it. When life gives you lemons make lemonade.