Welcome to Gaia! ::

But only... Eight years? That's not a lot, right?

So, what's changed in my life since I was active here?

Well my parents split up, I moved with my mom who then lost her job, went into college and used her financial aid to keep us in an apartment which then got messed up and ended up with us being homeless! I dropped out of school (8th grade).

We drifted from friend's place to friend's place for a while, my mom got her old job back, so at least we weren't a complete burden to people, but we couldn't get a place of our own because her credit was destroyed, she had a recent eviction, and no money saved up since it all had to go towards keeping us fed and upkeep on her car (She had to drive 2hrs a day for work).

We ended up moving into a motel for a while, which was nice except for the fact that we were paying 2-3 times as much n that as an apartment would have cost, but again, bad credit and no opportunity to build up a deposit. I was about 16 at this point, so I started looking for work.

Well, it took me about 2 years to finally land a job... at Taco Bell. It was awful, but it got me into an apartment in the same town, I wasn't homeless anymore, I adopted a cat, my mom moved in with a friend from college in the city she worked in, lost her driver's license for a while due to an unpaid ticket.

A little over a year later I moved into the apartment my mom was renting, my situation at work was deteriorating rapidly (One of about 8 people working there, mandatory overtime, closing shift, but with the catch of not being able to leave until the manager was done with paperwork, but not getting paid for... 4 extra hours of being there.) I tried transferring to a TB closer to this apartment, but it was super run down and the staffing wasn't any better, can't really do the drive thru well if you can't make out a work anyone is saying.

Life was alright for a while, I wasn't able to find work close enough to walk to, so i was unemployed the entire time I lived with my mom again, though I had money left over from my tax return that I used to pay for things from time to time.

Around my 21st Birthday my mom's workplace went belly up (Well, sorta), she and 75% of the rest of the staff were laid off. We survived off of her unemployment for as long as we could but, well, we ended up homeless again. I did end up getting my GED a bit before this, I was strongly encouraged by my adult education program to go to college based on the scores I got (I got a perfect score on one, and near perfect on the others), but well, I'm still not in college now...

We used what little money we had to put our stuff in storage, then took everything we could fit in her car, and moved over a hundred miles away to live with her cousin for the foreseeable future...

In tents...

We didn't know she had another cousin living with her at the time.

Life ******** sucked for a while there, I got a job at the local Subway, but the management there was awful, and all my money went to paying my mom's cousin so that that SHE didn't lose HER house, because unbeknownst to us she had also been in financial trouble before we moved up to her place.

Things started to look up a couple years ago, I got a call from Walmart for an interview, got the job making more than I did at Subway, nothing was expected of me, I quickly made enough money to get into an apartment.

So my life as of Walmart...

I got an apartment, supported myself and my mom, got a promotion to Department manager, got a very nice tax return, stepped down from DM to O/N stocker for a pay raise (I went from 10 to 12 then 12.50). My mom FINALLY got another job, making $15/h, she finally got her own apartment a few months ago, so I am living alone (+cat) again.

So that's the short version of the story. I'm currently 25, single, living alone (+cat) and supporting myself at 12:73/hr. $1K savings, very good credit, recently bought myself a good gaming desktop to replace the one that died on me nearly 5 years ago, and upgraded from the same clamshell type phone I've been using my whole life to an S8. OH, got new glasses too, I've been needing those for a while.

I'm finally getting some practice driving in (yeah i know, years late to the party) on my days off. Listening to podcasts, reading manga, watching a couple anime, and occasionally playing LoL in what little free time I have. My current goals are to get my license some time after winter, save up more money to move again when I have the freedom of mobility, get a second cat, and get therapy so I can finally be the healthy person I was always meant to be.

My friend didn't get her license until a couple years ago and she's going to be 29 years old in December. She never needed to drive until now because she could either walk, take the bus, or get a ride from whoever she was living with at the time.

It definitely helps having multiple people willing to drive you places. I've personally gotten tired of getting turned down, or getting flaked on.



And that's only a small portion of the problems I've had, but I don't really want to go into the details since it's pretty personal.

I'm not sure how active I'll be, given that I tend to keep myself pretty busy, but I'll try to pop in once a weekish.

Well I wasn't here back when you were last here, but I understand what living such a crappy life is like. I've had such a life myself for the past 8 years being on-&-off the streets sprinkled with some jail time (stealing to survive; don't do it any more) and psychiatric hospitalizations for suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts. I actually just got out of a psych hospital today after being in it for a week. As for the tent life, I also understand that very well. I'm currently living in a tent in the woods behind an Ohio Wal-Mart. Have been living such life for the last 6 months straight, but like I said homeless on-&-off for the past 8 years.

8 years, sheesh. I haven't even been on Ga-- omfg my account is 11 years old.