Born Poor
October 7, 2025
1h 24m
An indelible look at the realities of growing up poor in America
October 7, 2025
1h 24m
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More than a decade ago, the Emmy-nominated documentary Poor Kids explored poverty in the United States as it’s rarely seen: through the eyes of children.
Born Poor tells the stories of the same children, now grown, chronicling their lives from childhood to the present day. The 90-minute documentary follows Kaylie, Johnny and Brittany across three chapters of their lives as they grow from kids to teenagers to adults, trying to pursue their dreams while dealing with an economy where they face more obstacles than opportunities — and trying to overcome the grinding poverty that shaped their childhoods.
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Chapter 1
Kids
2011-2012
Johnny, 13
JOHNNY:
My name is Johnny Davis, I am 13 years old, going to be 14 in three months.
We are in the Salvation Army homeless shelter.
Jasmine, no.
My dad had got a business, and he was making about a good $5,000 a month. We had good and fancy things then. We had a three-bedroom house, a living room, had a 32-inch flat-screen TV in there. My mom’s and dad’s room had a 42-inch flat-screen TV in their room, and that’s the TV we watched the Super Bowl on.
CLASSIE, Johnny’s mother:
Here’s one of Tom’s old business cards.
JAYLIN, Johnny’s brother:
Oh, yeah, I remember T & C.
CLASSIE:
Yeah. T & C. Tom and Classie. [Laughs]
JAYLIN:
Yeah.
TOM, Johnny’s father:
When it was good, it was good. And I can remember having five or six jobs a month that were lined up, back-to-back. And I mean decent-paying jobs—$4,000, $5,000, $7,000, whatever it was. And all of a sudden, just right about the time when everybody was saying the recession is coming about, the recession is coming about, people just plain old stopped fixing on their houses, stopped making repairs.
JOHNNY:
The payment on the house was due in two weeks, and I guess my parents just didn’t have the money at the time, because he was explaining to us business was slow. And we lost our whole house and everything. So we’s back to ground zero. Then we moved to a homeless shelter. Anything that can fit in a book bag or a suitcase, you could take it. Whatever you—like this TV, the yellow one in the living room? That only made it because it could fit in my bag. If it couldn’t fit in my bag, that would have been left behind, too.
All my life all I’ve been wanting to play for a football team, and every time we had a chance to get on a team, I never got the opportunity. It was just there, and I would’ve went to the training, but it was time for us to go.
CLASSIE:
We have to go. Hurry up, and let’s go.
JASMINE, Johnny’s sister:
Hurry, hurry, hurry.
JOHNNY:
My father works at Grand Processing Corporation. In the mornings, we get up around 4:30, we get there, we come straight back to go to school.
JASMINE:
In, in, in, in, in.
JAYLIN:
Assigned seats, assigned seats, let’s go.
JASMINE:
The journey takes about two hours, there and back. We had to go with our mom, because the rules say that we couldn’t be left in the shelter by ourselves, because we weren’t old enough.
JOHNNY:
I thank God that he still has a chance and an ability to still go out and get different jobs.
TOM:
It’s not a career or something that I want to spend the rest of my working years doing, but it’s something that will provide for us to have some food.
It just seems like it gets further away every day. I know this is tough, driving out here every day. There and back, there and back. There and back, there and back. It would be so much easier if you could go ahead and grab us a place out here, so you don’t have to make the trip back and forth.
I look at that little house every time I ride past. That’s a nice one there.
JOHNNY:
You turn around, look back at the house. You might look at it for a while, and go on with the rest of your life.
Hey, Mom and Dad. Guess what I got on my grades.
CLASSIE:
What? Oh! Oh!
TOM:
That’s good.
CLASSIE:
One for the Willis team!
TOM:
That’s good.
JOHNNY:
I got two “A’s,” two “B’s” and two “C’s.”
TOM:
Oh, wow.
CLASSIE:
That’s what’s up, Johnny.
TOM:
I have to get you a skateboard.
JOHNNY:
Grades is my only way out of here. If my grades are no good, I know I can’t go to universities like my dream is to go. I know if my grades are not good, I can’t play football like I want to. If I don’t succeed doing what I have to do in school and making good grades, I will fail. I am going to live this life. Life of shelters, going through hard times, can’t feed my kids. Trying to figure out where I’m going to lay my head every night.
BRITTANY:
My name is Brittany Smith, and I’m 9 years old.
It’s tough, because my mom and dad are poor. My dad just lost his job.
Brittany, 9
BRITTANY:
Monday I tried getting in the shower, and it was cold. I put the hot on all the way, and no cold, and it was freezing. It felt like shoving your face in a bunch of snow. It was freezing! The hot water shut off because we didn’t pay the bill in time. It was overdue.
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
It sucks.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
So what’s the next bill due?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Electricity. That’ll be $318. We just need to put Roger’s ass to work.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Yeah. [Laughs]
Roger, 12
ROGER:
When you see the flat-screen TV and the computers, and our PS3 and stuff, that’s just things we’ve acquired over the years before all this happened. Like when we were not this poor.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Sink’s broke. [Laughs] I don’t know how or why, but it broke. And the cheapest plumber is like $65 an hour. I can’t even afford $20.
ROGER:
Well, we lived in a farmhouse. My dad lost his job from Picture Perfect, he got laid off, and we got kicked out of there.
We moved here. It’s not very big. We didn’t have enough room, so we had to put it all in storage, and we lost it all, because we couldn’t pay it.
BRITTANY:
How storage works is you put all your stuff in there when you move, but you have to pay the bill, or else it gets thrown out on the street, because they have a spare key. I don’t think it’s right, because people shouldn’t throw other people’s stuff in the street, because that’s just plain-up rude.
I got a big makeup thing, and I lost it in storage. I lost my favorite teddy bear. I lost my DS. It was gray, and it was awesome.
I’m bummed out, because that was my favorite thing in the world. Besides my family. [Laughs]
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Yeah, caliper’s shot. Got to get new pistons, at least, on it.
BRITTANY:
My dad’s brakes on the truck isn’t working. One time, we almost got in a wreck. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. I hate that sound.
When is the cable being shut off?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Soon. We owe them almost $200. The cable, the internet, all that. We don’t have the money to pay it.
BRITTANY:
Oh. What are you doing?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Applying for a job.
BRITTANY:
Have you applied to many places?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
This will be the third Menards store I’ve applied at. Walmart, the Anchor place. Quite a few.
ROGER:
I hope that my dad will somehow miracle-ly get his truck working and get a good job, so we’ll be able to get money to keep this house, hopefully, and not get kicked out.
KAYLIE:
My name is Kaylie Hegwood, and I live in Stockton, Iowa. And I am 10 years old.
Oh, yeah! That one was good! That one was good!
I don’t think we’re a rich family, but I think we’re kind of a poor family.
I’m hungry.
BARBARA, Kaylie’s mother:
[Laughs] I knew you were going to say that as soon as you—You’re going to have to wait now, sis.
KAYLIE:
I’m just starving.
Kaylie, 10
KAYLIE:
We don’t get the three meals a day, like, breakfast, lunch and then dinner. When I feel just hungry, I’ll just—I’ll feel l like I’m so sad, and all droopy, and then I’ll feel weak. And then some in the mornings I’ll be so starving, but then I’ll be like, “Ah, I need some food!” But then I’ll get—But then I don’t think of food, and then I’ll just think of something else, and then I’ll not be hungry any more.
Ow!
BARBARA:
I asked if you were ready. Combs are hard.
KAYLIE:
One more time.
BARBARA:
You can’t pull it, Mom, when I’m doing this.
KAYLIE:
Stop pulling.
BARBARA:
I’m sorry.
KAYLIE:
How do you think you have customers?
BARBARA:
[Laughs] Customers.
KAYLIE:
I don’t want you to freaking cut me.
BARBARA:
I’m not going to cut you.
KAYLIE:
You better not.
BARBARA:
I’ve been in school long enough, I won’t cut you.
KAYLIE:
Or you’re dead. I mean it.
My mom, she has very little in her bank. And she can’t pay all of her bills at the same time.
BARBARA:
My income is fourteen eighty, and the total of my bills is thirteen twenty-six, and that does not leave me money for food or gas. I’ve never seen it this bad.
KAYLIE:
Cans! OK, put ‘em in here. Don’t want beer.
My best friend is Jordan, and we grew up together. We like to go canning to make money. With canning, the non-squished ones are 5 cents.
JORDAN, Kaylie’s friend:
And the squished are 2.
KAYLIE:
Yeah.
Some people come over here for gas, and it’s not here anymore. The dance hall, that’s broken. Train station, it’s all rotting.
Didn’t that used to be a movie theater?
JORDAN:
No.
KAYLIE:
What did it used to be?
JORDAN:
It was the old bank.
KAYLIE:
Huh. I bet there’s old money in there.
JORDAN:
I’m not going in there! The floor fell in.
KAYLIE:
That would be awesome if there was like thousands and thousands of dollars.
When we can’t afford to pay our bills, our house bills and stuff, I’m afraid we’ll get homeless. Me and my brother will starve. You never know what’ll happen in your life. So, yeah.
JORDAN:
Kaylie, what are you looking at? It’s loud!
KAYLIE:
I would just like to go explore the world, but I’m never going to be able to do this. ‘Cause these days, everything is expensive. I watched this one show where it said they’re raising the gas prices, and my mom can’t even afford gas. We have to be careful how we use our gas. How we use everything.
BARBARA:
The bills here at the house is just too much for me to handle. Right now there doesn’t seem to be a way out. So my only options are to give up my house and move my stuff into storage and move into the motel room.
KAYLIE:
We won’t get to keep our dog Nala. It’s extra money, and we’re going to get rid of her.
I don’t want to move. I want to just stay put here.
BRITTANY:
I think there’s a lot of people in America that need help with food, because they’re poor, or they’re either homeless. Or they’re both.
We need food for our family. I’m hitting my growth spurt, and I’m really hungry. [Laughs] My favorite food is Chinese food. I am craving that right now. Know what makes me mad? We can’t afford it.
FEMALE VOICE [on intercom]:
Mr. Jakelin?
MALE TEACHER:
Yes.
FEMALE VOICE [on intercom]:
If this is a good time for you, would you like to send your students down for the Nutrition Club?
MALE TEACHER:
I’ll have them down there shortly.
BRITTANY:
Nutrition Club is a bag of food that you get every Friday and you have to make last the whole weekend. They announce in class that you have to go down for Nutrition Club if you’re in it. You have to go to the office and you have to sign your name in for it. And then you go put it in your locker and then you go back to class.
FEMALE SPEAKER:
Hi, good morning, Brittany.
ROGER:
I’m surprised by how things can change so fast. You can go from doing OK, not having to go hungry, to this. Going hungry and having to pay all your bills and not being able to. On the verge of being homeless again.
BRITTANY:
We just found out my mom is pregnant. She’s like a whale.
My dad’s been working. He’s been working for a week, and he has $64 total.
ROGER:
Having a baby is probably not the best idea right now, considering that we’re going through money problems.
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Definitely not a good time to have a baby, but I don’t believe in abortion, and—
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Or adoption. Financially, we’re going to be in a lot more trouble. [Laughs]
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Yeah, financially we’ll be strapped.
ROGER:
The thing I miss the most from having all this happen is the internet. I mean, people don’t realize what they have until it’s gone, and—Serious World of Warcraft withdrawals, man [laughs]. Because, say, in World of Warcraft, I’m awesome. I’m a level 85 paladin. Tank and healer. And in real life, I’m a 14-year-old boy with nothing going for him. [Laughs]
JOHNNY:
The good news is, I have made it on the football team. I’m the starting quarterback of every game of the season.
Church left. Mushroom, screen pass to Isaiah. Ready? Break!
All I want is to play football. But football is expensive. I can name a few of the items that I need and want for my sports. My gloves ripped, my football gloves. I asked my mom and dad can I get some. And my dad was like, “Well, how you going to get it? I ain’t got no money.”
CLASSIE:
Takes time and money, Johnny. Then a helmet costs. Cleats cost. The pads costs.
JOHNNY:
I believe when there’s a will, there’s a way. You want something, if you want to—and then if you want to do something, fight for it till you can get it. That’s what I believe.
CLASSIE:
You getting too big. You always want something extra.
JOHNNY:
I don’t want nothing extra.
CLASSIE:
Yes, you do. You want a phone.
JOHNNY:
I got a phone.
CLASSIE:
You want shoes.
JOHNNY:
I’m not wearing no earth-walkers outside. No, sir. [Laughs] Jordans and Nikes.
CLASSIE:
Johnny, Nikes and Jordans are expensive.
JOHNNY:
I know.
CLASSIE:
Just for a name. That makes no sense. You need a job.
JOHNNY:
Nikes’ not expensive.
CLASSIE:
Look, I’ve been buying Josh shoes after shoes after shoes. I can’t afford it. Now what? Walmart? He got to take Walmart. What else can I do? At least his feet not dragging the ground.
JOHNNY:
There was some Jordan flip-flops in there for 30 bucks. Now, that’s a great deal. You cannot find no Jordan flip-flops, the brand new kind, for no 30 bucks. They’re probably not real, but—
CLASSIE:
Is that a great deal? When I can go to Walmart and buy my—The shoes I’m wearing I got from Walmart for $5.
JOHNNY:
I’m talking about name-brand stuff. That’s a good deal, Mama.
CLASSIE:
My sandals are nice, right? You want some of those, right?
JOHNNY:
If you closely—If you listen to it, it’s a good deal! Ma.
CLASSIE:
See, that’s why I like ya’ll when y’all small. They accept stuff. You getting too big. Your feet growing. You’re in grown people shoes now. Oh, please stop growing! [Laughs]
As a mother, you always got different thoughts going through your head and mind, wishing that you could change things and wishing things was different. But what are you to do? You can’t keep beating yourself up about it. But at the same time, it’s just hard. Having a family is hard. Maintaining a family is hard. Keeping us indoors is hard. [Cries]
JOHNNY:
I want to be an NFL player. My dad says it takes lots of hard work.
TOM:
What do I tell you to do every day?
JOHNNY:
Pushups and situps.
TOM:
Pushups and situps.
JOHNNY:
I’m 14. My life is almost over until I’m a grown man, and if I don’t have the opportunity to show somebody to play football, football won’t exist in four years from now. That dream is going to slowly start fading away. That’s what happened to some of the dreams of kids. They pertain to something and they can’t afford it.
BRITTANY:
It’s a boy! Baby’s a boy. I was really hoping for a little sister, but, you know, you get what you get.
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
Went back to work for the company that I used to work for, and they’re not doing the greatest, either. So I got maybe a week’s worth of work, and then they’re going to be closing up shop from this local office and only keeping one of the three branches open now. So it’s just temporary. Temporary fix to a long-term problem.
Yep. Battery on that one’s dead.
ROGER:
How much does a new battery for this thing cost?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
About 30 bucks.
ROGER:
I think it pretty much sucks that we can’t really fend for ourselves that well. We might lose this house, and if we can’t move in with somebody, we’re going to be literally living on the streets.
I’m scared of me growing up, having kids and kind of going through the same stuff. Not being able to feed them and not being able to clothe them or whatever.
Oh, I ran over poop. That sucks. Dad, I let it die! Oops, I let it die.
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
The only thing I told him not to do. Don’t let it die.
ROGER:
I don’t think my chances of getting a good job when I grow up are that good, because the economy is screwed up.
Oh, this thing’s heavy. Sucks.
I’m trying in school and stuff, but I’m not really doing that good.
I may be big, but I never said I was strong. Ow, it’s in my face.
If you don’t get a good education, you’re not going to be able to get a good job. And if you don’t get a good job, you could end up like us.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
No more babies. I got my tubes tied after I had him. I love him, and I wouldn’t mind having more, but we can’t afford it.
BRITTANY:
The baby’s futures are going to be weird and messed up. Life is going to be hard, because there’s hardly going to be any jobs left in the future, or any money, when rich people will be poor like this. Like you, you might get poor in the last few months. You never know.
KAYLIE:
We’re not keeping Nala. She was my dog, she was my favorite dog, and now we have to take her to the pound. We have to get rid of Nala, but not Tanner. Nala was so adorable. If you had her, she would sleep on your bed and she would sleep on you. She was like your little guard dog. We’re getting rid of my perfect little lovey dog. Yes, Nala, I hear you stressing out.
I love you, Nala.
FEMALE SHELTER WORKER:
Does she have any favorite toys or games?
BRITTANY:
Lots. She needs lots and lots of bones.
BARBARA:
Yeah, she chews up bones like—
KAYLIE:
She’ll chew one in like an hour, so. [Whispers] She hates baths.
BARBARA:
Oh, yeah.
FEMALE SHELTER WORKER:
Doesn’t like baths?
BARBARA:
No. This is my animal lover.
FEMALE SHELTER WORKER:
She’ll have to go into our isolation room, since she hasn’t gotten any vaccinations yet.
BARBARA:
Yeah.
FEMALE SHELTER WORKER:
So she’ll be in an isolated area right now. All right, sweetie.
Do you want the leash and collar back at all?
BARBARA:
Just the leash.
KAYLIE:
And the collar!
BARBARA:
Why the collar?
KAYLIE:
‘Cause, Mom. Fine. Meanie. [Cries]
I got it! I thought we were getting a double bed.
BARBARA:
And there’s no mini fridge. Dang it! And there’s no microwave. OK, we have to ask him about that.
KAYLIE:
I thought we were getting a double bed. This is small.
BARBARA:
It’s going to be small.
KAYLIE:
It’s all crunched up and there’s not much space. See? See, he takes up the whole way to go to the bathroom. [Laughs]
Be right back!
All the cold stuff that needs to be freezed is in the sink. We don’t have a fridge. Just the sink is our fridge. We have to get ice mostly every day, because it melts during night.
My mom can’t sign us up for school. My mom says that we’re going to get in school when we move into the trailer that we are getting. If I keep missing school, then I see my future poor, on the streets, in a box, asking for money, stealing stuff from stores, and—yeah. I don’t want to steal stuff. I don’t want to do any of that stuff. I want to get an education and a good job. I believe that I’m going to get a perfect job that I like and that I want to do. People can’t stop you from believing in your own dreams.
Chapter 2
Teens
2017
Kaylie, 15
KAYLIE:
I’m Kaylie, and I’m now 15. I’ve moved to a trailer, then I moved to a duplex and then I moved here. And we’ve been here for almost a year and a half, two years.
Bella. Oh, my God, I’m so happy I got her. She cuddles with me, actually cuddles. She’ll sit there and lay on my chest all night.
Bella, can I get underneath your chin? You going to let me?
It’s important for me to have a dog, because it’s kind of like therapy.
My grandma was diagnosed with mucosal melanoma cancer.
BARBARA:
So Grandma went for her PET scan today, and her thing’s getting big again.
KAYLIE:
It’s getting bigger?
BARBARA:
No, well, you know it was small, and they got it all contained. OK? Well, I think it’s getting—like the thing that’s all like a deflated balloon?
KAYLIE:
Yeah?
BARBARA:
Is now starting to inflate again.
KAYLIE:
Again?
BARBARA:
Yeah.
KAYLIE:
They’re probably going to have to do radiation again.
BARBARA:
Yeah.
KAYLIE:
My grandma, she gives a lot. Without her, we wouldn’t have this house. My mom wouldn’t have her car. I wouldn’t have a phone. We wouldn’t have anything without her.
BARBARA:
Our electric will probably be shut off by the morning.
KAYLIE:
Why?
BARBARA:
We owe them $179 dollars, and they won’t wait.
KAYLIE:
Being poor, it sucks. It affects not being able to do stuff. If you want to go hang out with your friends, go to the movies, you can’t do that all the time because you don’t have the money for it.
TYLER:
I don’t want my phone to die.
KAYLIE:
I don’t even care about my phone, how we going to eat?
BARBARA:
We can get things like lunch meat and bread and chips. I’m going to go to energy assistance on Thursday, and they’re going to be able to help me, but I can’t get there till Thursday, and the electric company will not wait.
TYLER:
But our frigging stove is electric! We’re going to be living like a third-world country again with no power.
KAYLIE:
We won’t have hot water.
It’s a little depressing. It’s really hard, and I know people have it worse than me, and I wish no one had that.
Transportation is hard because of my mom. Can’t afford gas. Whenever I go to Taekwondo, the instructor, he takes me, back and forth.
Did it! [Laughs]
I like doing Taekwondo because it gets a lot of anger out, and stress and stuff, so it helps relieve some of that.
There’s probably been many children who’ve grown up in a poor household, became rich in the future, which I believe I can, but it’s a 50-50 chance.
I wanted to get a nap in, but that’s not happening.
BARBARA:
You can go do your homework.
KAYLIE:
Good, because I’m buried in it.
BARBARA:
“Good, because I’m buried in it.” Well, if you do it the first time.
KAYLIE:
It’s not from something I don’t do, it’s something from when I miss school.
BARBARA:
OK.
KAYLIE:
I know I’m not supposed to miss school, but I’ve missed about six days already. That’s a lot. That’s why I think my grades are kind of iffy. I can’t rely on my mom; she can’t even get herself up in the morning, I have to.
Your schooling is probably the most important thing ever. Your schooling is what gets you somewhere. It’s what takes you places.
Are you going to go to the bathroom?
I cannot wait to get out of Iowa. I know many people say that, but I have a passion of getting out of Iowa. [Laughs]
The most thing I’m afraid of is becoming like my mom. No offense, she’s tried her best, but I’m scared to death of becoming like her. Her financial situation, and things that’s happened to her, that affects how she acts. If I become like her, I don’t know. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. [Laughs] Yeah.
Maybe someday, in my future, I’ll graduate from college and push through life.
JOHNNY:
Good morning, Grandma.
JOHNNY’S GRANDMA:
Good morning, Johnny. What’s going on?
JOHNNY:
Not much.
JOHNNY’S GRANDMA:
How was work?
JOHNNY:
A little tired from it, you know what I am saying. They had me working real good last night. It wasn’t that long.
Johnny, 19
JOHNNY:
I’m Johnny. I’m 19 now. So I moved with my grandmother to Chicago, the South Side of Chicago, so that’s where I’m located now, until I go venture off for college or whatever.
My parents, they couldn’t sit stable, moving around a lot of places. And I knew it was going to be a problem for me academically as far as my life situation. I guess I started hanging out with the wrong people. I ended up going to jail.
We were all making stupid decisions on a consistent basis every single day. They decided that day that they wanted to shoplift. We ended up getting arrested for it. I didn’t run because I didn’t want to get shot. It was a minor misdemeanor. I got locked up for a day.
When I went to jail that day, it was like, you really falling off. You let yourself fall off. You went from all this good stuff happening to you—you going to be, you know what I’m saying, a good football player. Scouts was coming to see me at practices, asking about me, wanting me to play on their team—to, now you’re smoking weed, and you got locked up, and all that. It was just like a reality check to myself. Like, you really falling off. You need to get back on track. And this was my wake-up call, I guess. I came up here to start over.
The route I was taking down South, it wasn’t going good. I was going to be a dropout or something like that. And I had to do it. I had to graduate. Something my parents didn’t do. I had to make that opportunity. And graduate from college.
JOHNNY’S GRANDMA:
How do you make them move over?
JOHNNY:
Me and my grandma got a real close-knit relationship.
JOHNNY’S GRANDMA:
Oh, wow. That’s beautiful. All four of y’all together, too. That’s a blessing. Look at Josh. Wow, y’all coming up so nicely. Growing up. No more babies.
I worry about them. Them going place to place to place, different places, and not being stable. That’s what worries me. I just hope that they can be able to stay stable somewhere so they all can graduate out of school. Stability is everything.
JOHNNY:
I don’t worry about my brothers and sisters. Everybody doing good, getting good grades, graduating, going to their next grade, doing something positive. I think they’re going to be fine.
I work for HMR Designs. It’s a party and wedding design company. Just working to this point, until I enroll in school this spring. I just know that the money is needed, so I got to go get it. I work my job gradually, and just save my money, until when spring come around, enroll in school and start playing. And that’s all I’m worried about. But now, I’m just going to work, and I guess keep myself in some good shape and save my money. That’s all I can do right now. If you fall, you got to get up, dust it off and keep on going. That’s the only thing you can do, till you get to the top.
There we go. Go on. Get over. Oh, yeah. Oh!
If you come check on me five years from now, probably be somewhere, playing for somebody team. Everybody knows the American dream. Oh, go to college and go live your life. That’s all I want to do. Living my dream and take care of my family. That’s it.
Brittany, 15
BRITTANY:
I’m Brittany, and I’m now 15 years old. My hair isn’t blonde anymore because I dye it, which is one of my hobbies, I guess. I like to do different stuff with my hair, and I like it. And I’m probably not going to stop until all of my hair is gone. [Laughs]
ROGER:
Give me one of these ones.
Roger, 19
ROGER:
I’m Roger, and I’m now 19. Graduated high school a year and a half early, got a job. Gotten a few different jobs. Just been working. Working and sleeping.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Zachary. One—
ZACHARY:
No, Mommy. I’m just playing.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
It’s not a toy. You see that? That’s germs. That’s gross. Put your chair back.
BRITTANY:
My little brother, Zach, turned 5. Zach is autistic. To help him, we’ll help count with him, and we’ll him try to read, and stuff like that.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
“B” is for—
ZACHARY:
Ball and bee.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Yeah.
ROGER:
Oh, I love that little guy. He’s so awesome. He’s helped pull the family together and definitely takes a lot of stress out of the day.
There’s your dragon. I think my monster could kick your monster’s butt, dude. [Laughs] Well, dang.
BRITTANY:
Middle school was filled with drama, and I hated it so much. People would bully me because I was poor. It distracted me focusing on my grades, because they would pass notes and everything saying that I was ugly. My lowest point was getting expelled and getting held back. The highest point was finally graduating middle school, and I felt super-proud of myself.
I like art and creativity, because you get away from the real world. It just helps me a lot.
ROGER:
It’s definitely gone up and down over the past five years. It will be going good for a week or two, a month, and then out of nowhere all the bills pile up, and you just—you can’t seem to find any money anywhere.
BRITTANY:
I know that my parents try to make it less stressful for us, but Dad will come home with a really bad paycheck, and then I’ll just like start doubting everything. We won’t be able to pay bills, is what I keep thinking. And I’m thinking like, we’re not going to be able pay rent. We’re going to be sitting on the streets, or something like that. And just every time that happens, it pops up in my head. Being stressed out and everything is part of life.
MALE STORE CLERK:
Wonderful. What can we do for you?
BRITTANY’S FATHER:
I just need to pick up these two shower doors and a storm door.
MALE STORE CLERK:
OK.
ROGER:
My dad, he just recently got his job back at Lowe’s, and that’s when I started with him, too. I think I’ve gotten myself into the business to where it’s always going to be there. People are always going to need sidings, and I always figured if this didn’t work out, build toilets. Everybody’s always going to need to take a crap. [Laughs]
Yeah, I never really thought that I’d still be at home, but I don’t make enough money to make it on my own. I just think at this point in my life, I don’t need to be happy right now.
BRITTANY:
When I grow up, if I have kids, I would not want them to be growing up like this. No matter what I go through, I’ll still want to try and try and try to be better.
Chapter 3
Young Adults
2024-2025
Kaylie, 22
KAYLIE:
I am in Bettendorf now, and I am 22, almost 23 years old. I got my own house. I put a thousand dollars from working at a retail store in the mall into marijuana stock. I made around sixty thousand. I moved out of my mom’s, and then a week later I found my first house. Bought that one for around twenty thousand. A very close friend of the family gave me a little bit of a loan, along with the money I had. So, fixed it up a bit, and then resold that one. And then did that another time. Now I’m here. I got my GED, and then automatically enrolled in college. I’ll have my criminal justice associate, and then I plan on going for my bachelor’s, majoring in psychology and minoring in criminal justice.
I got a job as a 911 dispatcher. For a straight month we were doing classroom work. And then, past three weeks, call-taking, actually on the floor live.
Dispatch it in five, copy en route, Jackson Ave., medical alarm for a fall. Hot response.
I am nervous about messing up, especially when I’m live call-taking, because these are real people and real-life emergencies they’re going through.
FEMALE VETERINARIAN:
Overall he looks great. Looks to be a happy healthy puppy. [Laughs]
KAYLIE:
He is a very—He’s a scaredy cat, for sure.
FEMALE VETERINARIAN:
Yeah, yeah. Just a little nervous. I know, I hear you forgot your— [Laughter]
KAYLIE:
I’m still a dog lover. Bella was put down two and a half years ago. I miss her every day. I have her ashes. I got her cremated.
Come on. Go play. Go play. Go play.
Now, I have Sadie and Blue. I like to stay in my house, hang with my dogs. I’m a pretty boring 23-year-old. I really just sit at home, read. Every now and then I’ll pull up a TV show, play with my dogs. I’m very much a homebody here in Iowa.
I do, on free time, love to bake. I’ve been trying to make the animals food, because they’re amazing taste-testers.
I tried making them sweet potato chicken nuggets. Not exactly the prettiest, but they taste good, because they love them.
Sit. Blue. Well, I think they like it. [Laughs]
When you’re growing up poor, that’s your norm. You don’t have the best situation, but that’s just what you’re used to.
Me and my mom, we don’t really talk as often. We have two separate paths in life. We don’t really get along the best. Holidays are enough time.
Sadie, sit. Sit.
I’ve been working really hard to get my life together, and it’s starting to point in a direction. But believe me, there’s days where it just feels like there is no direction. There was a time where I thought I didn’t even want to be alive. Trying to build success is a very lonely life.
I’ve been seeing a therapist for two and a half, three years. With my appointments with my therapist, I’ve learned as a defense mechanism for your brain, PTSD can kind of block out memories. And unfortunately, most of my childhood is kind of blocked out. Like when I took Nala to the pound. I don’t remember anything that had entailed that day.
It is very sad to have the gaps, and not being able to remember, because, unfortunately, you know it’s because you didn’t grow up in the best situation and your brain has to protect you.
It’s a fight every day, and I’m sure those with mental health struggles, they know it’s a fight every day.
Johnny, 25
JOHNNY:
I’m Johnny. I’m a college football player that plays at the University of Shorter. Right now, we’re located in Rome, Georgia. It’s north of Atlanta.
Shorter University. It’s a D2 in north Georgia. Coach Morrison was a blessing in disguise. He gave me an opportunity out of nowhere. He just told me, “I like what I see, and we can use you over here.”
I am a father of three. A husband to Leah Davis.
DOODY:
Taste.
LEAH:
OK, here.
Leah, 26
LEAH:
We actually met at the college that I attended in Chicago. I went to National Louis University there. We were very young, so I’d say attraction at first sight.
JOHNNY:
I’m so glad I took pictures of these plays, because they took this book from us, and we have to write notes.
LEAH:
When we first met, he wasn’t playing. And I remember pushing him to get back in school and try to figure it out.
JOHNNY:
Every day. Go chase your dream.
COACH:
All right, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. We’re taking it. We’re taking it.
JOHNNY:
I’m not in the starting lineup because I took a devastating hit to my ankle during camp.
PLAYERS [chanting]:
Defense, defense, defense. Let’s go!
JOHNNY:
I wasn’t happy. It was irritating. I hate being hurt. It don’t let me be that little kid having fun playing this game.
Watch the run! Watch the run!
When I’m there on a game day, it is tough to be on the sideline and watch, but I worked my way back up the depth chart so I could play again.
I’m on special teams. You wait on the sideline patiently, you get your name called, and you go out there and it’s like, OK. All right, it’s time to make a play. Let me go make this happen. The job on kickoff is run your lane and make a play. Whether that’s a tackle, or whether that’s a strip fumble, or whatever it might be, you focus on your assignment at hand, and you go get it done.
Finally, boy. That ain’t my first one, though. It’s just been a minute. I got that, though, let’s keep going. That feels good. I got to keep doing it, though! I don’t need one, I need more! Let’s keep doing it, though.
We’ll start in Proverbs and we’re going to read to the end of this chapter. We’re going to stop each verse to get an understanding and make sure that we know exactly what’s going on.
LEAH:
In order for you to gain understanding and knowledge, you have to be willing to find people that are going to help give you advice to lead you in the right direction, and not those that are going to lead you astray.
We tend to lean on each other when things get really difficult. We’ve been through quite a bit of things, like especially with one of our sons passing, our second son. He was a twin. It was a mono-mono pregnancy, and they were in the same sack together.
JOHNNY:
They both were fighting for their life, because they both were strangled by the umbilical cord. They both had it around their neck, apparently. But one had more of a heartbeat than the other, which is the one that’s living. The oldest one realized that he was kind of passing, so they kept swapping blood.
LEAH:
Trying to save each other.
JOHNNY:
Trying to save each other’s lives, yes. And finally he—I guess the oldest one gave off more of the blood to my son that’s alive now, and he was trying to do the same, but they got him out before he could give off anymore. So it put him in a bad situation when he came out because he was drained of blood. He had to have a lot of blood—what was it?
LEAH:
Transfusion.
JOHNNY:
Yeah, blood transfusions, because he didn’t really have much in his body because they was trying to save each other. I didn’t even know children could do stuff like that.
LEAH:
Yeah, I don’t want to do the waterworks, I’m sorry. [Laughs] I’m sorry.
JOHNNY:
It’s OK. Yeah, I know. It is crazy, but—
LEAH:
This is this is our son Jaycee. This is the one that passed; this is the second twin. These are just some little keepsakes that we got. It’s my baby boy. This is one of the hats that he wore in the photos.
It was really difficult, just wondering what could I have done to prevent this. I couldn’t help but think what if I would have pressed the doctor a little bit more about letting them be born early. They both could have been in a NICU. And Jaire is fine. He’s 3. So, he’s doing great. It just makes me wonder—We could have had both here doing great. [Cries]
Life is going to come with trials, and life is going to come with tragedy, but even through all of those things, you can still have joy.
BRITTANY:
Go run.
ODIN:
Go like this. Don’t fall. Don’t fall.
BRITTANY:
Be careful, Elena. Don’t fall again.
Brittany, 22
BRITTANY:
My name is Brittany Smith. A lot of stuff has happened. [Laughs] A lot. I have two kids now. I have a son and a daughter. My daughter is 3, about to turn 4, and then my son is 5, about to be 6. I’ve changed a lot since becoming a mother. Teaching two humans how to live, you definitely learn how be patient. They’re very good kids, very sweet. They’re smart.
Oh, you want one now? Oh, you want that one? Oh! Just to put it in the water.
I love being a mom. They both have brought so much light and happiness into my life. I didn’t think that anybody could love me that much. I’m really glad that I have those two in my life. I don’t know what I would do without them. They’re both my rocks. They’re my everything.
Isn’t that pretty? That is so pretty. Don’t put it in the water, it’s not going to fuzzy no more.
I just want her to have somebody else who understands the things that she dealt with when she was growing up, because that’s how I felt when I had Roger with me. I felt protected. I felt like I could go to him with anything. He’s very missed. I wish my kids would have gotten a chance to meet him.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
Roger was working with Josh. He was saving up money. He had a girlfriend. They were talking about starting a life together. It was April 15, 2018, and Roger got in a severe car accident, and he passed away. The wreck was so bad that it crushed more or less every bone in his body. He was a donor, but they couldn’t use anything. He’s missed, tremendously, every day, all day. A big part of our lives is gone. A lot of people came to his funeral. The very first person that showed up was the lunch lady at his high school.
Forever in our hearts. That’s Roger’s urn. That’s where he’s at.
I almost gave up. I starved myself. I ended up in the hospital. That’s when I guess I hit rock bottom. And I had to pull myself out of it, because I still had children that needed me, and we all grieve differently. It’s still too painful for Josh.
Brittany went through a severe depression. She lost her best friend and her brother.
BRITTANY:
Yeah! Oh, crap. Roger, not ice!
He died at 19. I went down a really bad path. I was addicted to Adderall for a while. That was the darkest point I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t expect to live to 18. I was just going to do Adderall and drink till I died. That was my plan.
ROGER:
I’m sorry. [Laughs] Are you OK? Aah! [Laughs] You almost got me. That’s not cool!
BRITTANY:
I definitely lost a lot of myself when he left. A lot. Way too much than I want to admit. I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry. [Laughs] I lost pretty much all that I knew of myself when he left.
ROGER:
I’m sitting on the arm of the couch. My legs are on your leg. And I know my legs aren’t that fat.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
When he was 4 he was too big to sit on me.
BRITTANY:
This definitely feels very empty without him here.
BRITTANY’S MOTHER:
You better not fart. [Laughs] Ew.
BRITTANY:
Life just doesn’t feel real anymore. I miss having my best friend around, all the time. When I was at the point where I was at my lowest, that’s when I found out that I was pregnant with Odin.
All right let’s draw—let’s draw a mushroom.
ODIN:
Mushroom? Easy!
BRITTANY:
I was ready for it to just be over. I didn’t want to be here anymore. And then feeling that heartbeat, and him kicking and moving inside me, just made me feel I had a purpose. And then I finally had him, and looking at him for the first time, you just feel all that love just melt into that baby. That was the second I knew I was meant to be his mom. Like, I was—I wasn’t supposed to do the things that I was doing. I was not supposed to die. I was supposed to stay here. And then when I had Elena, it was the same feeling all over again, except she pooped all over me when I held her for the first time. [Laughs]
Since Roger passed, the only real mental health support that I got was a grieving journal. Looking at it was just a painful reminder, and I didn’t like it, so I ended up throwing it away.
Ooh, pick the prettiest one.
ODIN:
The prettiest one?
BRITTANY:
The prettiest one.
ODIN:
Look at this chunky guy.
BRITTANY:
I haven’t really dealt with that fully yet. But I’m getting to the point where I realize I really need to talk about it, because it’s getting to me, psychologically, mentally. And I want to be healthier mentally for my kids. Roger’s death made me realize that life is very short.
LEAH:
We’re expecting.
JOHNNY:
We got a little munchkin on the way.
LEAH:
I’m excited, because we’re getting our girl. A little nervous, too. I’m just glad that she’s healthy. I’m excited to meet her when she finally gets here.
Even if we have to really buckle down and budget, we’re still able to do that. We find different ways to make ends meet. Johnny does different things. He used to work with his dad contracting. He’s done day labor services. He’s had other jobs. I do hair, babysit, things of that sort. We make it work. We definitely make it work.
Right now, times are hard. I’m still in school. I’m in the tech field. I’m going to be studying cloud design. We live off the Social Security benefits that we have, and I have WIC right now. And those are the only things that we have currently.
The benefits that people receive, they’re taxpayers’ dollars. It’s not like we haven’t worked ever. I’ve been working since I was in high school. I was in banking. Needless to say [laughs], I was paying taxes. That’s what this is for. Everybody has a moment where they have to lean on someone, whether that’s the government or their family. You never know when that could be you.
We’re going to have nachos tonight, OK? And movie night, before Daddy leave.
JAIRE:
Daddy leave.
LEAH:
Yeah, I know. I don’t want Daddy to leave, either. Oh, don’t be sad.
JAIRE:
Doody sad.
LEAH:
I know Doody’s sad. Mommy’s sad, too.
JAIRE:
My Daddy go bye-bye.
LEAH:
Yeah, your daddy’s going to go bye-bye. Just for a little bit, OK?
JAIRE:
OK.
JOHNNY:
I just got an invite opportunity to go play at an all-star bowl game. It’s for collegiate guys that are trying to make that next jump to the next level.
Just another way to put guys on the map, and let coaches and organizations see that even though we come from smaller programs or whatever the case might be, we still have the ability to play at the next level.
This life is about living. You only get one of them.
COACH:
Good, good! All right, stay right with him. Don’t grab him! Good work, man!
Johnny, 19
JOHNNY:
What I want to gain out of this, for one, I came to have fun. Definitely gain some quality film that I could put on a highlight tape, and somebody could be like, “Wow, this big guy can run, move. He plays the ball well,” and all those things.
COACH:
Get hands on him right away. Oh, good punch, good punch. You’re good, you’re good. Oh, stay right—oh, there you go. Oh, nice shot, man.
JOHNNY:
Oh, my God! Oh, my God. I couldn’t even see the f—— ball, brother.
LEAH [on phone]:
Hello? Goodness.
JOHNNY:
Jaire. Jaire. Where’s your baby sister?
JAIRE [on phone]:
This right here. It’s my baby sister.
JOHNNY:
Oh, OK.
LEAH [on phone]:
Daddy can’t see.
JOHNNY:
Right there. It says right there, “It’s a girl.”
KAYLIE:
Unfortunately, I was fired due to an incident of a 911 call I took for an abandoned dog. It was around 30 degrees with wind chill, so, it was pretty cold. I could see that nothing was being done about it. So then after work, I went to check on the dog, because, I mean, it was 33 degrees outside, with wind chill. I mean, it was cold outside. They said you’re not allowed to respond to calls, but that dog was abandoned. It was cold outside. No one would leave a baby outside in the cold. Why should someone leave a dog? They fired me, because I broke protocol, for going to help the dog.
I’m making it now, but job stability, losing that is scary. I have a savings. I’m not going to let my account get too low. I have a certain number, and if it gets to that number, then I’ll just get a dead-end job.
I want to move out of Iowa. I’m applying at jobs kind of around the Dallas area in Texas. It’s a little bit more affordable there. Housing is affordable. There’s no state tax there.
I’ve applied to 14 different places. And I believe three or four of them said no already.
I wanted to get away from Iowa, because it just feels like a dead-end road for me here, like there’s nothing left. I plan on selling this house, and then buying a house there. I can’t really rent, because I have two dogs and two cats, so, it’s pretty hard to find.
I tried to build a life here, and I just can’t. I’m very scared. So much can go wrong. I’m not going to expect me moving to a different state be a cure for everything I’m suffering here. Changing the cycle that you were born into is very hard, because it’s like your brain is trained that way. I mean, a lot of toxic behaviors I had to unlearn. It was a—It’s a hard process. I’m still learning to this day. So, it’s, you know—It’s a long, lengthy process.
JOHNNY:
Right now we are located in Jacksonville, Florida. I’m here visiting my parents. My father’s a contractor. He got it back up and going over the last couple of years, and it’s been extremely successful.
TOM:
It’s raining, so you got some work to do, Johnny.
JOHNNY:
My favorite co-workers. [Laughs]
I would rather work for my parent than a random person. He’s 10 times harder than a normal boss would be, but I’m cool with that. That’s your father.
I will stay with my parents during the draft training process to get ready for my pro day, when my skills are officially tested.
I have a good friend that has let me borrow his car that he’s not in town. I wake up at 4:50, drive 30 minutes over to Gym Jax.
GYM COACH:
Drive, drive, drive, drive. Yes.
JOHNNY:
So far I haven’t made any money of football, but I hope that in the future I will.
It’s the recruiting game all over again, but now it’s just at the professional level. Somebody got to like what they see for them to give you a chance.
GYM COACH:
Good, so.
Drop, yeah. Boom, good. But you saw how you came up? Straight. Straight out. There’s no need to go up.
JOHNNY:
Eventually, this will turn over. This will become a point to my life to where all this hard work that I’m putting in, it won’t go in vain. Because that’s just how this process goes. The more hard work you do, the more consistent you stay, you will see the results that you’re looking for.
Jacksonville, Florida’s going to forever be like a spot. My other son’s burial plaque is there. I go see it on my own. In a sense, a part of my life, a part of me, is in Jacksonville.
Do I ever get tired of the struggle? Absolutely. But I feel like if you get another day to breathe and wake up and make something happen, you got to get off your butt and make it happen. My son didn’t get a chance. I’d like to really see what was going on. If he would have lived, he would’ve had this. He would’ve have had a chance to be able to get up every day and fight for life. When I look at his brother, I just see how he would have been. Feel like they would’ve just been two firecrackers, full of knowledge and learning. You know, son? We all must return back to the ground, right? One day. Yeah, we all got to return to the dirt.
Because I still have days where I feel like crying. If I don’t probably shed a tear on my own. But a tear drop, I remind myself: Be tough.
Today is the last thing in my control. The Podyum Bowl Pro Day event that’s being hosted today.
COACH:
Yes, sir, nice stick.
JOHNNY:
Teams look at the Pro Day results to see if they going to give you a chance.
I feel like 13-year-old self would be like, “OK, this is where everything come down to,” you know what I’m saying?
I need good results on the 40 today. It’s the benchmark for all the scouts and the teams. I done ran 40s over the last two months, maybe over 200 times.
COACH:
4.96 … 4.81.
JOHNNY:
It’s real bad.
4.81 is not a good time, so that wasn’t good enough. I needed under a 4.6 at least for a team to be able to pay attention to me.
That’s crazy. That’s crazy.
That’s too, too bad. Four-nine? That’s offensive lineman movements. It’s crazy, because in training, I never ran, like—The slowest I ever ran, 4.5. Man, that’s major. I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen now.
You’re going to run. You’re going to stop. We’re going to catch the ball. Let’s go. You ready?
JAIRE:
Ready.
JOHNNY:
Don’t mess this up.
JAIRE:
OK.
JOHNNY:
All right? All right. Let’s go. Set. Stop.
DOODY:
Stop.
JOHNNY:
Catch the ball.
DOODY:
Catch the ball.
JOHNNY:
There you go.
JAIRE:
There you go!
JOHNNY:
Good job. All right, come on. Next one.
LEAH:
It’s been especially difficult for Johnny because of his upbringing, with how he had to move around so much. So the fact that he still has that childlike passion, it’s amazing.
JOHNNY:
You got to keep going till I say stop. Come back, come back. Set, go. Stop! Yes, sir!
Chasing my dream is not easy, because I kind of had that feeling, like, “Damn, is this over? Is this—Did I—Is this how it ends? All this time and work just to run a time that I know I’m not even close to running, and it ends like this?” I felt like that, I did. But at the same time, I was like, no, that don’t even make logical sense, right. That’s not how life works. Life keeps going.
BRITTANY:
Right now, I’m surviving on my paycheck from McDonald’s, the food pantry and food stamps.
It’s hard to money manage when you’re struggling. Thankfully I got the food bank to help with that.
WOMAN AT FOOD BANK:
Oh, tilapia.
BRITTANY:
Ooh, salmon.
WOMAN AT FOOD BANK:
Yes, and we have ground beef.
BRITTANY:
They definitely have very healthy things, and those are super-expensive at supermarkets and stuff like that. Like insanely expensive. Like a thing of raspberries is $5. That’s—Thats’s a lot to me, because it adds up, you know? If I want to buy a bunch of stuff to make a fruit salad, it’s going to cost me over $30.
Ooh, look it. They got fruit and stuff in here.
WOMAN AT FOOD BANK:
Yeah, that just arrived today, so it’s pretty fresh.
BRITTANY:
Nice.
They had fruit salad bowls ready, and they had kiwis, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, orange slices. They had all that stuff just jam-packed in a giant bowl, and we got it for free.
You can pick one toy. OK?
Right now, it is pretty important that we get food from here, because I live at my cousin’s house, and I only make $300 each paycheck, and I have to give my cousin basically my entire paycheck to make sure that we can pay for everything.
I want to grab you some socks, too, because you run through socks like it’s nobody’s business.
It just feels like I always end up in the same boat all the time. And it’s sinking. [Laughs] I did it to myself. I dropped out of school. Went down a really bad path. I got pregnant. And then I just wasn’t able to really do anything further with my life, other than work and raise my children.
ODIN:
My pajamas. Look at this.
BRITTANY:
That’s too small, baby. You wear a 6, this is a 3.
ODIN:
Look at this.
BRITTANY:
Losing my brother definitely knocked some stuff out of whack in my brain. I feel like I have a lot of anger held in towards that. And it clouds my better judgement on the decisions that I make. So it is my fault that I’m in this situation. But, it’s also not from lack of trying. It’s lack of ability, if that makes sense. It’s just difficult. I’m just tired of the struggle. It’s exhausting.
It is really nice to be able to have salmon. I like it, but I don’t really know how to prepare it.
I just wish I would have made better choices in my life, and I wouldn’t have fallen in my parents’ footsteps. Because now my kids are going through the same stuff that I went through when I was little. And that tears me apart.
All right. It’s hot.
ODIN:
I don’t know who texted you. Smells good.
BRITTANY:
If you don’t like it, it’s fine. It’s not for everybody. Mom’s never really made salmon before.
ODIN:
What is the sauce?
BRITTANY:
It’s tartar sauce. It’s for fish.
ODIN:
I kind of like it.
BRITTANY:
It grows on you.
Once you get in the hole, it’s extremely hard to find your way out, and I got myself deep in that hole. And I feel like I’m just clawing, trying my hardest, grabbing sticks, grabbing tree roots and stuff, trying to find my way out, and everything’s just slipping and breaking and I just keep falling back in the pit. It’s extremely hard to get out, once you’re in.
KAYLIE:
I’m currently in Gainesville, Texas, now. I am pregnant. It was a bit of a surprise, that is for sure. Was not in the plan. But, you know, there’s never a full plan in life. You just kind of got to roll with it.
I am 5 months. I’m having a girl.
And then right there’s her leg, her thigh, her knee.
The baby’s father, who I’m with, his family’s amazing. Anytime I need help I just give them a call and they’re there.
Of course I worry about being a mom, because it’s scary. Everything you do, you might repeat the cycle. Every hard decision affects the little life you created.
It’s like a mix of emotions. Of course I’m happy, I’m excited. But also it’s like, oh, wow, I’m going to be a mom. [Laughs]
I’m just glad that kid me had dreams and I wanted to overachieve. No matter what situation I was put in, I still had those dreams, because at the end of the day it’s easier to imagine a life out of your current situation than what you’re really living in.
BRITTANY:
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Odin, happy birthday to you. Blow them out. Good!
Odin has just turned 6. He started kindergarten, so he’s very excited about that. Elena, she starts pre-school. They’re just super-excited to go to school, to learn, to play with all the other kids.
This way, baby.
ODIN:
I’m trying to. The ground is too hot.
BRITTANY:
That’s why I told you to bring your crocs, dude.
I feel like if I tried a lot harder in school I would have my high school diploma, I would have a better shot at getting a good job. That’s the last thing that I want, is for my kids to worry about what we’re going to have for dinner, or worry about where we’re going to stay.
ELENA:
Yummy, yummy. Mom, it’s all done.
BRITTANY:
If my dream came true, I would have my little pastry shop, little puff pastries. That’s what it would be called, Puff’s Pastries. It’s my thing. I really like to make things look pretty. It’s relaxing, it makes me feel good about myself, because other people like what I’ve done for them. Gives me the validation, affirmation that I want, so. [Laughs]
The chances of that happening probably aren’t very high, but I’m going to stay positive about it and try my hardest.
JOHNNY:
Newest added member to the family is my daughter, Jael Jacola Davis . She came here May 30. Crazy, I got another one right around my birthday. I’m just blessed to have another healthy child. That’s what I’m happy for. Happy I got a family. That’s the only thing that’s been—yeah, truth be told, the only thing keeping me afloat, for real, for real.
LEAH:
Which one do you like, Doody?
DOODY:
How about the blue one.
LEAH:
The blue one? That’s your favorite color, huh?
JOHNNY:
Being born poor, it can start off rough. It can be a difficult process because you limited opportunities. But them opportunities will come.
Catch that. Good catch, boy.
Sometimes you get dealt a bad hand. I’ve been getting bad deck of cards all my life. You going to sit there and cry about it, or you going to play through it? I’m just at home working a regular job, waiting for my opportunity.
JEZZA NEUMANN, Producer:
Is the dream over?
JOHNNY:
Hell, no. You know the dream ain’t over, man. What kind of question is that? [Laughs]
Come on, it’s our last chance. Stop! There we go! Stay down, stay down! [Laughs]
Y’all going to see me at 40. If he’s still filming this when I’m 45, 50, y’all going to see him and like, he going to ask me that same question with some wrinkles in his voice, because he’s going to be super-old by then [laughs], and I’m—and you’re going to ask me the same question and I’m going to tell you as an old man, “Nah, the dream ain’t over. I can still get out there and run with them young’uns.” Watch. I ain’t letting this go, man. This was—My mama used to tell me people, certain people was born to do certain things, you know what I’m saying? This is what I was born do.
Go. [Laughs] Damn, boy, that’s what I’m talking about. That faith in that, boy. See it? That’s the new truth, man. Yeah!
To be continued …
FILMED, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY Jezza Neumann
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