[birdcrazy]

My past includes a double major bachelor's degree in zoology and also ethics. But as a child I had severe emotional impairment that messed up my possible potential. So as an adult I tried to make up for it, I had several jobs working with birds and education.

But mental illness reared it's ugly head. Now I'm on SSI and me and my husband are not making it well and sadly this year we couldn't get each other Christmas presents and also we could not afford to wash our clothes even. Someone from the church bought us groceries and if she didn't we would have starved. We live in a very small city and there is no work for me, and on top of that the lady at vocational rehab told me that she felt I couldn't work and I should remain on SSI looking for a cheaper place to live.

This really kills me and I don't know what to do at all. I have a good resume to find a job at a zoo or somewhere similar possibly, but I just don't live close enough to a place like that. I am so very, very sick to my stomach when we end up in a situation so bad that we can't buy shampoo or we can't afford the co-pays on our medication.

[ArthurDent]

Have you thought about something like work from home? I'm not talking about the work at home scams you find everywhere on the internet. I'm talking about really starting your own business.

Can you take your education and your hobbies and start something small? Maybe on Etsy or somewhere similar. Etsy is a great place for beginners to start, and it's incredibly cheap and easy to do. It might at least bring in some spending money.

I'm not sure how it would affect your SSI, so that's something you'd need to check into.

Just a thought.

Good luck

P.S. What about your local Humane Society or Wildlife Refuge? You might be able to use your background to find work with animals that isn't limited specifically to a zoo.

[birdcrazy]

People keep telling me to go to the humane society, I know about taking care of cats, but not dogs.

There is an aquarium store up the street from me, but I don't know as much about tropical fish as I do other things and they keep saying they don't need anyone else.

When I had my education jobs, it turns out I can't teach well sometimes, but I'm good at teaching adults.
The best thing I did was design posters and signs, I have a talent there.
Doing research, I did best at surveys. I was really good surveying birds in a particular area, and also identifying plants and trees.
Once I actually got to lead a foreign couple on a bird walk. I pointed out 12 species they never seen before and they had a blast and said I was good at that sort of thing.