It was a summer day when I was 13.

My Dad was driving me to an English class when I saw my friend walking along the street. In my country, most people used scooter or bicycle to travel back then, so we clearly saw each other from afar.

I smiled and waved happily at him, but he quickly hid something and his face turned completely red.

I was puzzled, but I did not think much about it.

When I arrived at the teacher house, my other friends were talking about our other classmates. Then his name was mentioned. They said my friend now had a lot of money due to his “part-time job”.

I quickly realised my friend was hiding lottery ticket behind his back. In my country, ranking and social status is a big deal. And people who sells lottery ticket on the street is considered to be at the bottom of the hierarchy.

** A bit of background: Selling lottery ticket means you need to walk around the city, go into all the small restaurants or shops to ask , sometimes even beg people to buy. There would always be mean people/shop owners who would be rude to the seller.**

My parents and brother were really protective of me when I was young. I did not have any concepts about money - I was taught that children should not think of it.

My friend “working” at 13 was a real shock to me. And it was selling lottery ticket. And he had to hide it from me. And I was smiling at him, not knowing that he did not want to be noticed…

I realised that not all children were living a happy life. I realised that I was, indeed, well-off.

P.S: Now when I have grown up and lived abroad, I finally see fully how ridiculous that whole “status” situation is. But that is a different story.