Thread by @julie_is_alive

This is such a good article about poverty.

I remember hitting that bittersweet spot where the food/rent assistance stopped and I was set back for "doing better".

But thankfully, I had made the huge sacrifices to go to college so things got better quickly
cracked.com/blog/the-4-typ…

However, if not for section 8 housing, I would never have been able to get out of poverty. One year while I was in college, I supported my daughter on 7k for the whole year. When I get my social security report occasionally, I look at that year and my mind is blown.

I never needed #TANF but #SNAP saved us every month. It was hard. I donated plasma to buy diapers. Or rather, I went in twice weekly and let them stick me 10+ times before telling me to drink more and come back in a couple days, they could never get my veins.

Once I hid my car in a field so it wouldn't get repossessed. I rode my bike with the trailer to drop my daughter off at daycare and to go to school and work.

Once I had to cook using the camping stove because, electricity. #salvationarmy turned it back on & I have tears in my eyes even now thinking about it. Please donate to those red kettles during the Holidays. You will be saving someone from the horrors of #poverty.

I used to stand in my shower and write the figures of how easy it would be to pay the bills with 40k/year in the steam. It was an unimaginable sum to me.

And then, I graduated, got a job as an RN. When you make more money, your bills quietly go up. The struggle continued. Student loans become due, no more food stamps or housing assistance. But it feels good to be struggling on your own. Things slowly get better.

If not for public assistance, I would still be struggling and to be honest, I recently had a financial scare that brought all those memories flooding back, except back then, I had nothing to lose. The idea of losing what I now have was terrifying.

I took a deep breath & knew that if I had gotten out of poverty once, I could do it again. But I was wiser & super lucky & we're fine. Please don't ever judge someone for needing #assistance you don't know what they're doing to fix it or what barriers stand in the way.