Sabrina Zohar

And it's funny, birthdays mean a lot to me for the exact opposite because no one made them important for me.

My mom was the only thing, God, I remember, this is just to show you like how little things can add up.

I was nine and this was when my dad, he would not buy us anything.

He used money as a means of control.

And so he would have his girlfriends that he had and they would come and go, oh, your dad didn't buy you this?

And I would just cry being like, no, my father won't give me like anything to go buy at school.

So no, he didn't buy me that.

And my mom saved up money and she took me to Ross.

And she said, you can buy anything you want.

And I remember going through the aisles and picking all these things.

And then she was behind me putting things back because she knew she couldn't afford it.

But she never let me know that.

And so when we got to the register and she bought me like a pink dress I really wanted.

And I remember when we left, she said, just don't tell your siblings I bought this for you.

And I didn't understand it at the time.

And now I understand what she had to go through to save up money for like two months.

Every time my dad would give her a cup, she would put it in her pocket because she knew I deserved something that day.

And she took me to Ross.

She spent $20 on a dress.

But that made me feel like a million bucks.