Quote:
Originally Posted by Pfrog
Definitely not a fun place to find oneself in, for sure.
Don't know about dining halls on the campus where you are, but the ones at the University I work at are so expensive that most of us that work here can't even afford to eat there more than once a week, so I don't know how students on their limited budgets even begin to afford it.
It took me a long time to work my way back up from the bottom to some semblance of normalcy, but when I crashed and burned, I started out working 3rd shift at a convenience store for minimum wage.
It freed me up during the day to focus on my mental health and recovery process, relying on county services when insurance wasn't an option.
For me, shelter always came first regardless of what else I could or could not afford, and I ate many PBJ's and ramen noodles along the way!
I spent many years at an extended stay hotel which was also kind of expensive but at least I had a place to call "home" until I could get back on my feet enough to re-establish my credit and actually be able to afford a "legitimate" place to live - if you go this route to not make friends with or associate with other guests because a lot of illegal stuff goes on there and you don't want to get caught up in any of that!
Sometimes we have to be in some sketchy situations while we work our way back up to what society considers "normal".
It sucks to be in that boat, but when we have nobody but ourselves to rely on, then it's the best we can do.
With all that being said, I wish I had some better answers for you but hope you find the courage and strength necessary to slog your way through the dismal swamp you find yourself in while finding your way back to solid ground.
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Thank you for responding to my post Pfrog.
Since you've been where I'm at you do understand. I'm 48 and so this would be easier if I were 28 but that's not the case.
I don't know why I can't find a full-time job where I live, but I can't. And believe me, I've tried. But, it's about accumulation. If you accumulate enough strikes against you work-wise on your resume (i.e. job hopping which means no good job references), then you really set yourself up for failure, as I have.
I've tried to use functional formats on my resume, to no avail, and waiting for a temp job is like waiting for the winning lottery ticket (basically, it's futile).
I won't find out if I'm even eligible for a dorm room until 1) my GRAD Plus loan gets approved to cover the cost of the rest of my year in my program and 2) there is an opening this fall in one of the girls dorm rooms. I don't even know if my middle age 48 makes me ineligible. or eligible for a college dorm room.
The dorm room option seems to make the most sense economically -- who cares if the meal plan is expensive it's included so I am not paying extra for anything if I were to get a dorm room after my GRAD Plus loan is approved (I won' find out for a while yet).
But if that isn't available to me, I may just bite the bullet and go stay with my cousin b/c my financial aid is set to run out for my grad program after the fall semester so then I'm really screwed if I don't find a full-time job.
And no, I won't work myself to death with multiple retail jobs. I have health problems that prevent me from working more than 8 hours. When I was substitute teaching 8 hours a day, I tried adding a retail job to that, working another 4 to 6 hours after that but it was too much for me and I had severe asthma attacks. So, multiple jobs is not a realistic option for me. Just one job at a time is all I can do.
Meanwhile my sister expects me to fork over a large chunk of my summer refund to pay for services to clean out our mother's apartment of her junk once we get her into assisted living. I texted her today to tell her that she and our brother would have to figure that out, since I am going to save my summer refund instead to find a place to live, while I look for a job. Both of them and their spouses have full time jobs. So of course I got a snarky "gee, thanks" text response from my sister.
This, after I texted her late last night asking her how to operate our mother's insulin pen, which I didn't know how to use. She didn't respond to my text, so I had to call a 24 hour pharmacist for help. She didn't even respond to my text about it today, until I brought it up, and she only responded, "well, i saw your text this morning, at leas the pharmacist helped you out."
My sister is such a toxic person. I should have estranged myself from my toxic family system 20 years ago. I know my life would have turned out completely different -- probably better.
And my niece's high school graduation is in 2 weeks. I don't want to go. I should, but I don't feel like I'd be welcome there. I have no clue what my niece thinks of me (probably doesn't think very highly of me).