Nov 4 2011: Ten years ago I was just getting off the streets. I was put there because I had lost my job and a week later my roommate kicked me out because I couldn't find a job in that week. When I became homeless, no one was going to hire me. I got so low at points that eating out of a dumpster was not only A choice but was THE choice I had. Through the programs that I came across in California after I hitch hiked there, I was able to start the process to slowly get back on my feet. Wound up back in Washington and I would like to say that I lived happily ever after but bettering your life financially when you are coming up from the bottom is no easy task in the best of times. Its pretty much impossible at the worst. And thats what I've been trying to do. During my own personal better economic times I've went to school, and during the worst I went for full time employment always with the intention of completing my education and setting myself up to maybe have a decent living wage during my middle ages. Now I'm looking at the fact that DESPITE all of my best efforts, despite all of the energy I have put towards MAYBE getting some upward mobility, despite all of my work towards the American dream, I may wind up back out on those streets again........... Where am I you ask? Out there, rising up when I can, while trying to live the very life that I am fighting for........... I am out there on the street corner fighting for my life while trying to set my life up. THATS where I am. Oh yes, and I do have a well fed exterior but it was not always so, and if we lose, it may not always be.
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A comment on Conversation: Where are the poor in Occupy Wall Street?