Building Empires from Nothing

Life hit different when you're carrying textbooks in one hand and your family's future in the other.

I'm that student who studies under streetlights because electricity bills come first.

My classmates stress about buying new clothes and gadgets while I calculate if we can afford

rice this week. But here's what poverty taught me that wealth never could.

Every 90 I earn isn't just a grade, it's proof that circumstances don't define capability.

I work construction after school, my hands rough from labor, yet gentle enough

to write essays that top my class. My teachers see potential, but they don't see

me counting coins for my siblings' meals. Some days I'm exhausted, some days I want