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A Lesson in Understanding From My Former Homeless Life
Fear, motivation, and a lot of luck star in a little dance
When you’re lower middle class, there are many luxuries you can still afford.
When you’re lower middle class, the world still looks different. As you move up the socio-economic gauge, the world continues to look farther from reality. We often think about hardships in relation to ourselves — this isn’t a bad thing, as the idea isn’t to diminish the existence of hardships.
However, relating hardships confuses the voiceless at the bottom. Those who have nothing and feel bad for having nothing despite working relentlessly.
When I was homeless, even before my family and I afforded a tiny apartment approximately 12 years ago, here were the things I did not have, in no particular order, for a few years while I got mine and my family’s life back in order:
- Health care. Everyone thinks that everybody else has this, a study in 2018 shows that about 28 million people in this country are uninsured. My mom, my sister, and I were three of those uninsured in 2008.
- Transportation. I didn’t always have a functioning vehicle. My mom had a 2001 Honda Accord that had a transmission issue caused by Honda. It was a design flaw. When I called Honda…
