Does hard work pay off?!

My work history started at the age of 13 during a school program in the summer. I was impressionable, eager and ready to earn my own money. I always made lists of things I wanted to buy and what snacks I had to have thinking I was going to be rich. To some I was! I got to treat my friends to whatever they wanted at the corner stores.. ha ha I was a big spender. By time I was 15, I had 2 jobs. That summer program with my school and Six Flags( Great Adventure). You couldn’t tell me nothing. I was practically grown! My grandmother taught my sister and I about saving and spending only what we needed. She never took anything we made but we did get to use the money we saved to buy our own school clothes and shoes which excites me because the shoes I wanted I never got with her having to raise 5 other children. My grandmother was an amazing woman. Til this day, I never understood how she did it. Raising all her grands, working 2-3 jobs, being a pilar of the community on which seemed like little to no rest. We all learned some type of valuable lesson. Mine was; Always make sure you are able to provide for yourself and your responsibilities. Don’t depend on anything or anyone. Because if they left you tomorrow you will be all messed up. So this was my motto growing up. This was what made me go so hard.

I landed my first job that promoted me to a supervisor position at the age of 19. I among other young people helped run a company that was fairly new. We trained people helped reach the quotas, listened to the staff for quality assurance and much more. We worked some days for 10-12 hours a day. We were making so much money that corporate started to notice and they laid us off and hired more people for less money and it broke our hearts. I started to raise a family by then but I still worked sometimes 2 jobs at a time and it never bothered me at all.

By time I was 25 I was a single parent. I didn’t have much of a choice but to work all day so I could make ends meet and as frustrating as it seemed I still always made a way. Even in my 30’s when things got too crazy I would always lean on my grandmother and sister but I still worked worked worked and worked some more. I started to pull me away from my children and it took a toll on them, especially my youngest son who took to the streets making some bad decisions with his friends.

I lost control a few times having to move from place to place, having to start all over. I made too much to get help and made too less to effectively pay every bill. It just seemed like it was the American way. There were plenty others like me. Working their fingers to the bone. Not being able to take the family vacations, having to depend on income tax payments to catch up on past due bills, barely being able to celebrate holidays and birthdays and sacrificing everything just for nothing.

We see people living their best lives on social media. People with stacks of cash just flashing it without a care in the world. I often wonder how do they get so lucky? What are they doing that I am not? How do I get to where they are? Some of these people do the bare minimum and they live like kings and queens so I ask, is the working man a sucker? Are we the walking mats of the CEOs and the upper management who do nothing but point fingers and criticize? Myself who is a woman of many talents spent 29 years of life wasting it on working hard. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to regret it or not.

October 25,2020. With just about 2 more months to go ducking and dodging this crazy year finally got caught up by getting into a terrible car accident. Once again I was just starting over. New apartment, car payment and catching up on past due bills even though I’m still working 60+ hours to do so. In one day I once again lost it all but I was awakened. Awakened with the idea that the old me died and a new me, a smarter me, a more determined to use my talents me had submerged and my creative juices started flowing and I was ready. Ready to take this time to put things in motion, use the money I worked for all my life to carry me through this rough time, a chance to quarantine and put my plan in order but 2020 was not done with me yet. Financial trouble came looming in not with a broken ankle with screws in it and bills up to my forehead started piling up. Reality was setting in. I’m still positive I’m still trusting this process and taking steps on this new journey ain’t no looking back I hear me saying in my mind. Then I get the last bit of news that may put me and my family out on the street. I almost looked back. I almost ran back l. I almost put my uniform on and went to work. I am out of my mind and paranoid. My reality is I can’t even stand but I’m a working (wo)man. And for that security I am a sucker. For that baby bag I was chasing I am a sucker. For the over priced insurance and underpaid position I am a sucker. So I ask you one more time... Is the working man a sucker?