We Are the 99 Percent

12th October 2011

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I started working when I was 14, I finished high school when I was 16. By the time I was 17 I was in college and working full time. At 18 I got my nursing license. After I was married and had my first child at 19 I went back to college and worked full time 11-7 so my husband could work during the day. I also worked part time cashiering at a convenience store. Right before Christmas of 2008 my husband was wrongfully terminated for having to take a few days off work after I had a miscarriage. They legally had to give him his position back but not until we threatened to get a lawyer. This was a company known only in our house as “Evilmart”, because they then told him that they made a mistake and he would not be receiving a pay check. My pay didn’t even cover all of our bills. We couldn’t give our son a Christmas that year. One of our friends played Santa and gave our son what we couldn’t. We’re very lucky to have the friends we do. I became disabled after I had our second child because of conditions I was born with. Later that year my husband was fired again, but this time, for good. 4 months later in January of 2010my 2 and ½ year old son had his leg viciously broken by my sister’s,now, ex-boyfriend. When I had a mental break down and had to drop the classes I was in, my college wouldn’t waive the tuition fees and I can’t go back until I pay them. I was 3 classes away from my Associates Degree in Psychology. I now have $26,000 in defaulted student loans and no way to pay them back or finish college. My husband has been unemployed for the last 2 years because he couldn’t find a job and exhausted all his unemployment benefits. Now he has to stay home and take care of me because I need constant care and we can’t afford child care. Our income totals $1,012 a Month. We get food stamps but it’s never enough to feed our family of 4. We can’t even afford our own place to live.

We are the 99%