And if we had been born in another socioeconomic condition… would we be the same people?

  Everything started with a habit I’ve mentioned before: complaining about life and feeling like I don’t get enough opportunities to show the world what I’m worth. In one of those moments of reflection, I decided to do something different - I looked up the likelihood of being born into a better socioeconomic background than mine. I’ve always felt like almost everyone was born into more favourable circumstances than I was. I was born in 2005, into a lower-middle-class family in Portugal, and to me, that has always meant scarcity and struggle.
  My view began to shift when I started noticing certain contrasts that stayed with me. I remember being forced to use second-hand school books, while most of my classmates had brand-new ones. When the school asked us to talk about what we did during the holidays, many spoke about travelling abroad; I had only been to the beach, a 15-minute walk from home. I was never the kind of child to ask for things - maybe because, deep down, I wanted to avoid hearing my parents say they couldn’t afford it. Later, with access to the internet, I started to see the reality of those who are truly privileged - constant travel, expensive gifts, a life where whatever they wanted, they got. But the most painful frustration came in adulthood, when I had to freeze my university enrolment because I couldn’t afford a room. That’s when I came face to face with the raw truth that lack of money could really shape my destiny.
  Even so, when I dug deeper into that research, I found out that, on a global scale, I was born into one of the top 10 to 20% most privileged contexts on the planet, in terms of stability, safety, and access to basic resources. That discovery shook me. How could a reality I saw as unfair and limiting actually be better than the reality of 80% of the people born the same year as me?
  That’s when I became aware of something essential: the world isn’t just what we see around us – it’s much bigger, far more unequal, and far tougher. By becoming more realistic, I realized I can’t just compare myself with the few million people flaunting luxury lives on social media. I have to compare myself with those who don’t even have access to Twitter to complain about life or to Instagram to post a crying selfie on thei
r story. Many still have to hunt for food. Others walk for hours just to get water. Thousands die from illnesses considered low-risk in developed countries, simply because they have no access to basic healthcare. There are children who become parents to their own siblings before they even know who they are. That’s the reality I need to look at to put mine in perspective.
  That thought led me to another, perhaps even more complex, reflection: how much does our socioeconomic background shape our personality? Because according to several studies, our personality is formed by a combination of genetics, upbringing, and social context. And if that’s true – and I believe it is – then the environment we’re born into carries enormous weight in who we become. The way we think, feel, react, what we value, what we want from life. All of that is shaped, at least partially, by the circumstances that surround us from birth.
  From personal experience and from observation, I’ve noticed that many people born into less favourable contexts tend to be more humble, more empathetic, more aware of other people’s pain. Whereas those who had everything handed to them – not all, of course, but many – often carry a certain arrogance and a disconnect from the reality of the majority. That made me wonder: if I had always had everything, if nothing had ever been missing, would I still have this hunger to grow, this desire to change my destiny? Or would I be a more passive version of myself, too comfortable in ease?
  Maybe we’ll never know the answer. But it’s hard not to believe that our struggle is also our strength. That discomfort creates movement, and movement shapes who we are. With this new awareness, I started to look at my own story differently. Where I once saw obstacles, I now see opportunities for growth. Maybe the greatest privilege I have is the awareness that, even without having it all, I had enough to want to fight for more. Still, the question remains: who would we have been, had we been born into a different reality?
And more importantly… who can we still become, now that we know better?