Rodney Lucas was born into poverty. He was, among other children,
living in poverty with little to no hope of escaping the poverty
cycle. We first heard about him when our group member, Siena,
introduced the idea of interviewing him because she knew him from
before. She explained the conditions that Rodney Lucas had been living
in. After learning a little bit about his back story, we decided to
call him so that we could get his personal insight and experiences.

Rodney was very kind to let us know about what he had been going
through. During the whole interview he made it clear that he made it
out of the cycle of poverty by using positivity. “When I first
realized I was poor, I was two or three,” Lucas stated during the
interview. This struck me because I didn’t know that children knew
they were in poverty or in need at such a young age, making it
difficult to feel like every other kid that wasn’t in this situation.
It interested me to know more about what he was feeling during the
period of time when he was poor.

Talking to Rodney Lucas was an experience that I hadn’t experienced
before, it helped me understand much clearly what the people in these
situations are feeling. I feel extremely lucky to have been able to
talk to him about what he went through as a child. This opportunity
also allowed me to see the struggle almost as if it was me because he
was so clear about the feeling that he was feeling and the actions he
took to change the state he was in. If we were given the opportunity
to meet with him in person to understand what he went through even
better, I would take the opportunity. Over all it was all a great
experience and I really enjoyed it.