The Working Poor
Nov 20th, 2007 by Bobosan
I read an article a few months back about homeless people blogging. It seems so foreign and distant at the time that people who don’t have homes could even have access to a computer. These days, it doesn’t seem some absurd to me anymore.
You see, I’m the working poor. I work six days a week, and my life revolves around work. Yet, my current job doesn’t provide too much income, and I’m forced to keep on working instead of taking that two days off normal people would, and enjoying life. Everyday brings more worry about cash flow, and even though sometimes my worries are for nothing, every now and then I do find myself in a situation of being extremely tight on cash.
Which is also quite funny, because when I first moved out here, being ‘broke’ was having less than $100 in my wallet. Hell, today, being broke means having less than $5. When I say it nowadays, I actually mean it. I’ve never been forced to choose between food or a place to live, but I’ve been forced to be a few days late on a bill or two, in order to have the money in the account to pay the bill.
As it is, I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and day to day. Things should get a lot better now that Danyale is working again, but if she doesn’t get hired on permanently, things will get worse again. Supporting two people at a slighty above minimum wage job doesn’t really work out. If it was just myself, I would probably be okay, but having another person depending on me for food, clothes, and everything else possible is a responsibility I really wasn’t prepared for.
I still remember my cocky smile the day I left Indiana, right after Christmas, to come out here. I knew I’d make it, and I wouldn’t come back as a failure. I haven’t failed yet, nor do I intend to, but I think I really do need to change some things in my life, in order to make success more likely.
Some of these things have been ingrained into myself since I was a kid. Mom hardly ever cooked, so we ate out a lot at fast food joints. Thus, I find myself more apt to just drive down to Wendy’s than to run to Walmart to get that pound of beef I need to make hamburger helper. Also, mom wasn’t the cleanest in the world, so it’s always a constant battle to remember to clean up and pick up after myself. My apartment was pristine and clean two weeks ago, and now it’s gone back into general disarray. There’s mail sitting on the floor, alongside a 401k Prospectus for NPC (which sucks by the way). There’s Q-tips overflowing in the bathroom trash can, and then roll of toliet paper is sitting on the back of the toliet, instead of the holder.
I really do want a change in my life right now. Over the past eleven months, I’ve grown and matured more than I have since I graduated high school and moved out. It’s a very weird feeling when one realizes they’re not quite so young anymore, and that they’ve pissed away precious time.
I want to bust my ass and clean, get a better job, and just be a better person in general. I always have these noble intentions, but I’m easily side tracked, and it’s hard to always keep my eyes on the end goals I want to achieve. I deserve more than what I have now. I just wish I can keep my head up long enough to achieve it, before something else tears me down.