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When I was 23, I was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. Even though I had a job, I was not making a ton of money (first job out of college in a recession) and had been splitting a dumpy 3 bedroom with two brothers. They turned out to get into rip roaring fights, had both a marijuana and pill problem, and had ragers on weeknights where I'd wake up to find our front door wide open because it could only be locked with a key and my cat nowhere to be found. I ended up moving (and spending the bulk of my meager savings) the same week I was diagnosed.
Even with insurance, I was paying tons of money for copays, medications, and transportation to get to the hospital. The hospital was hours on public transit from either my home or work, and I wasn't supposed to be taking public transit anyway since my immune system was shot from chemo.
I ended up working full time against doctor's orders, skipping appointments and medication because I couldn't afford the copays, and eating absolute crap supplemented by a food bank (when I could get away from work to get to one). It was the absolute most frightening time of my life.
The year was 1977, and I was 28 years old. I had obtained my BS from Penn State some five years previously, drifted down to Philadelphia, was getting by, but turned off by the local "ambience"; so drifted back to Happy Valley for two more years; had some great times, but stagnated.
So with the "help" of a recruiter, I took a shot at a similar job (motor fleet dispatcher) in Manhattan (Chelsea); soon learned that the increase in pay was quickly eaten up by the higher cost of living. I went back to the warehouse of a food processing operation where I'd worked summers -- ended up staying for eighteen years, and developed a small business (tax prep) sideline.
The lesson I learned from this was to treat your personal and career decisions like a business proposition, and don't stick around if you start "running in the red (ink)".
Not proud of the things that I've done when I was desperate for cash:
Sold blood
Sold plasma
Sold eggs
Picked golf balls out of the woods, cleaned 'em and then re-sold them to golfers
Exotic dancer
Escort
Term paper writer
LOL,
I went to school out of state back in the dark ages when getting money from home was almost by pony express.
My father who was an amateur musician really liked the beatles and the rolling stone, so I went to college with a ton of their albums. I pawned quite a number of them. lol, it was a vicious cycle. need money, pawn records, threaten pawn shop not to sell them, get albums back. rinse and repeat.
Not proud of the things that I've done when I was desperate for cash:
Sold blood
Sold plasma
Sold eggs
Picked golf balls out of the woods, cleaned 'em and then re-sold them to golfers
Exotic dancer
Escort
Term paper writer
I know...some of it is pretty bad.
??? what was bad? personally it sounds like someone who needed money and found clever, honest ways to get them. I have to tell you my late husband suffered from Leukemia, that blood was needed.
That you've had to do something minor like sell stuff in recycled trash, plasma, or criminal/borderline criminal like stealing, prostitution (I think it's morally okay but still considered illegal ) etc..
Not proud of the things that I've done when I was desperate for cash:
Sold blood
Sold plasma
Sold eggs
Picked golf balls out of the woods, cleaned 'em and then re-sold them to golfers
Exotic dancer
Escort
Term paper writer
I know...some of it is pretty bad.
none of it is the slightest bit bad
well, i guess term paper writer could be seen as a little bad since other people were probably using your work and claiming it as their own. but that is on them really, not you.
Summer of 1973, emergency surgery 5 hours in the OR, then 10 days in intensive care, followed by 2 months of enforced idleness while I healed, only to be ready to go back to work in Nixon's recession and not be able to find a job. It's the only time in my life I've ever panhandled.
Of course I didn't have any medical insurance, and it took me 3 years to get the bills paid. I was poor for a long time, but not starving like I was after the hospital stint.
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