Life under the poverty line part 2

in poverty •  7 years ago  (edited)

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Continuing on the last section of this story I wanted to share with u currently how my life is so far. Yes I am still living under the poverty line, but overall I have started becoming happier by making better, smarter decisions that were able to impact my life significantly within the financial and personal parts of my life. Anyways back to the backround again.

After my job at the chocolatier ended I was left without a penny wondering what exactly I was going to do rent was just around the corner and I had to spend the rest of my savings on groceries. I immediately started job hunting again, looking for anything and everything. I was able to get a few odd jobs doing yard maintenance and cleanup so overall I was starting to save slowly for rent day. And when I say slowly I mean slowly I was saving as much as I could while still trying to feed myself which turned out to be more difficult then originally planned. There was a lot of days where I had to just drink tap water until I became full. A lot of night leading up to rentday that just made everything seem so impossible. The challenge of digging myself out of this hole I had put myself in seemed so out of reach. But I knew that if I didn’t do it I would be completely out of options at least at the boarding house I had an address that I could put on a resume. Around the time rent day was approaching I was able to finally save enough money to cover the room. So I got all paid up and I felt so much relief. Even though I knew that the financial part of this situation was over for at least another month. Now I had to start thinking about what the next game plan was, finding more stable income. My resume was basically nonsense, I did have a bit of experience and a few references I could call on so I started looking for work within my field of knowledge. That didn’t exactly pan out the way I had hoped, every job that I did have experience in already had their positions filled so I started broadening my search, applying for work I didn t have any experience in. Somewhere near the middle of the month I was able to secure a job working at an oil field mat construction position. My job was basically to take a sledge hammer and blast in massive metal pegs or nails into a huge wooden pallet that would be later used in the oil fields. 8 hours a day I would be smashing these pegs in, after two weeks my hands were bloody and bruised but I had made enough to cover rent and a bit of food for the month. Things were looking up even though it was slight, I was making a bit more money. Though the manual labor and another good reference I was able to find a few more jobs, I worked at a gas station and was able to complete a lot of work through them and get a few certificates while making 11.50$ per hour then I started working throughout the neighbourhood doing yard maintenance making about 15-20$ an hour. Eventually I was able to afford my very own 2 bedroom apartment for 750$ Groceries were cut back a bit but in the end I had my own space other then just a room so it was quite nice. I started making pretty good money through the side business and working at the gas station I was making about 1000$ a month. I was able to keep that up for about a year and a half until new management came in and started to fire people and cut everyone’s hours down to nothing. I would work half days part time and less then half days until eventually I had to go and pursue another job. After I left the manager got fired for stealing from the business but by that time I had already Left a pretty rude text message to my former boss for pushing me out of my position and cutting my hours which didn’t end well for me. Anyways after I left I started to fall into depression again wondering what I was supposed to do now and why it seems that every time something nice happens something just as worse had to come after. I began to drink and spiral into chaos once again. Constantly hanging out with the wrong people and getting evicted from places every few months. It was nearing January and it was started to get cold but I could get myself out of the negative headspace I put myself into. I hated everything and everyone. Why did everything seem so happy and cheering for everyone else, why was there multi billionaires and business owners who had everything. Why was I here? What purpose did I have? Nothing made sense anymore. I ended up sleeping in the streets for a while. No friends offered their couch’s or a place to stay. These people who were constantly asking for drinks or needed a place to stay I would be open arms with them but when the tables turned no one was there. I came to the realization that I needed to become better I hated Everything to point of my own existence that I needed to change everything about my life just out of revenge and spite itself. I would no longer be the sad person that was homeless and broke I would no longer be a drunk ass that had no job. I needed to change not for me but just for the fact that I needed to show the world and all those people that looked down on me that I could be successful and I could change. So I did....I worked my ass off, got multiple good paying jobs, got married and found myself in a position where all those people that had pulled me down were now asking for handout and money and a place to stay. And I said no. I had finally got to a point in my life where I was happy. And I realized what had happened. I had surrounded myself with unhealthy people and I myself became unhealthy constantly drinking and partying and getting evicted and losing jobs. But I think all those hardships needed to happen to me. In order for me to change I needed to reason to push through. Even if that reason was selfish And fueled by hatred I was able to dig myself out of the hole and start a new life. I dropped alll connections to the unhealthy people in my life I deleted my social media’s and started over. My cash flow was becoming steady I had groceries and bills taken care of. My rent was taken care of and everything is looking good. My wife of 6 years is still at my side and we have even saved up to take a few trips. The next goals in my life are to save up for a car and a house now. I still have to say though, financially even 6 years later I’m still under the poverty line. I believe that no amount of work will ever get me over that. Even if I work everyday for the rest of my life I know that every year prices are going to rise. They just had a minimum wage increase but to combat that the price of everything else skyrocketed as well. Unfortunately That is the price that we have to pay. No amount of work will change that. Unless u are family CEOs and owners of big corporations will leave their businesses to the family line. At most people of this generation will become managers or small business owners but that’s about it. Middle class, medium house, one car, but u know what. From everything that I have endured in my life...that’s okay. I’ve always thought of just selling everything and living in the road no bills no rules no issues. But we will see maybe I’ll go a bit more in depth on that subject in another story. I think I would be an interesting price to write. If u enjoyed this post feel free to make a small tip and also check out my photography on my Instagram page @apexx_nation

Thank u very much everyone.
Apexx

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Thanks for sharing your story! It was inspirational to hear about your fallen all time low and how you were able to recover and become stronger than ever XD I also feel the same about the poverty level. I have learned to seek riches in spirit rather than in wealth. struggle is never end.