Day 49: Priceless Commodities

For particular reasons, I live in one state but commute back to my hometown every weekend. It’s only a 45 minute drive, so I don’t really mind the trip.

For other particular reasons, I cover expenses for others who make less than me. Restaurant outings and monthly subscriptions for tools I now have to share make up a majority of this rap sheet.

My gut reasoning is simple: just like my dad accidentally getting to iT when it was the wave during his college days, I accidentally got into software development when it was the wave for my college days. I got lucky, and I wanted to share some of that fortune.

One day when I was dropping off my then-girlfriend at our college, I got pulled over by a cop for speeding. It was three months since I received my BS in Computer Science, but I had yet to interview or even search for a job because I was committed to salvaging my last summer of freedom, right up until the sun cast it’s final ray of sunshine. Damn, I can’t pay for this, guess I better apply to some jobs now.

I applied to three jobs and got interviews for all three. That’s an unusually good ratio, most of my peers get maybe 1 interview out of 50 applications. I got an offer almost immediately for a pay grade way too good for a recent college graduate. Did I really deserve to be this lucky?

A lot of the people around me were not so lucky. I go back to my hometown every weekend, and a lot are in the same place they started after high school. Why are you still poor? I subconsciously wondered. But the more I opened my eyes, the more I realized, it wasn’t their fault.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAAv7gWV6SU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwRZibUqL0

My first gut reaction was to start tracking my expenses. Surprise, surprise, eating out was the biggest criminal. And when do I eat out? Only when I’m with family and friends.

I announced my latest discovery to my roommate (a recurring character in my dailies), and eagerly awaited validation.

“Only $70 per weekend for 4 people? That’s amazing, Oscar!”

I looked at him bewildered, stating that it cost me over $3,500 a year to take my family out.

“Well, at least you get to see your family every weekend.”

I felt ashamed for re-realizing that he had crossed the country just to find a halfway decent job in the area.

I’m not happy with “playing into the game”, so to speak, but this is an uphill battle against long-time institutions of restrictive thinking. I start to ask, what can someone like me do to help others “learn the game”, so we can start breaking the rules out of it?

:cloud_with_lightning:

I felt ashamed for re-realizing why I joined the the Creative’s Workshop in the first place :sweat_smile:

@dragon @wildcat @sabweld @eliturner @michellebasey @briandesimone @DerekDodds @laurasanto @homeroom11