Poverty on the Home Front

I know I'm late, but this is what happens when you spend most of your waking day away from the computer. So sue me.

I currently go to a technical college. I'm going for my phlebotomy certificate, so that I might gain some solid clinical experience before I try to reapply to medical school. I've noticed over the course of the past nine weeks, though, that I am not a typical student in this class.

I am 21, I have both a high school diploma and a bachelor's degree. I live with my mother (sort of), and help raise my two little sisters. I'm not planning on using this certificate to access a career in phlebotomy; I'm using it to become one of the most powerful people in the hospital. I have good health insurance (at least for as long as I'm in school), and my mom can afford to send me through this program without any difficulty. However, I opted to put myself through the program because she's already put me through college (though I still paid the bulk of that through scholarships).

The rest of my class? Well, we have one girl younger than me; she's 19, and has a GED. She's pregnant and married, and is on medicaid. We have another girl, probably in her early 20's, also pregnant. The father of her baby is her ex-boyfriend who goes around treating his girlfriends like crap, and has taught is 4 year old son to call his mother a bitch. Needless to say, she has no intention of listing him on the birth certificate.

Another woman in the class is my mom's age (almost exactly). She has 6 kids, has never really held a job (due to having seizure disorders much of her life, thanks to a car accident she was in when she was 21), and has an abusive husband. There's a 26 year old woman who dropped out of school (failing) in 6th grade, and got her GED 6 years ago on a whim (she also lives in a trailer park). Now she wants a job that can actually pay the bills. We have a drill sergeant, we have a retail worker, and we have a couple CNAs (plus an Medical Assistant). The most they all hope for is a good job that pays the bills, or maybe they're even reaching to get that coveted Associate's degree.

My instructor, even, fits right in with them. She lives in a Habitat house, and her husband doesn't even have a high school diploma (though he is going to school for it now). She used to be a CNA, but now works as the education coordinator in the local hospital's laboratory. She used to be on WIC, and was probably on medicaid before she got the job at the hospital.

While none of these people are exactly living in poverty, they aren't living nearly as well off as I am. My mom doesn't really have to worry about paying the bills each month. Things have been tight the past couple months only because one of the properties she owns hasn't been paying her anything, so she's taking a $700 loss every month. This would kill the people in my class, but she just cuts a few things and manages perfectly fine.

Granted, we used to be where they all are. We were on WIC for a while, when my little sisters were really little. We were never on medicaid as far as I know, but I don't remember going to the doctor much at all when I was little. In middle school, my mom was working three jobs to make ends meet, and her and my stepdad still had to file bankruptcy in order to make it through.

What's my point in telling you all this? I guess that I've been incredibly isolated as to the living conditions of people recently. I mean, I went to college at a state college, but everyone there could afford to go in some way or another. They were maybe a little tight on finances, but they managed fine. The people I'm around now remind me more of where I used to be, and truly humble me. I knew I was lucky, but I guess I didn't quite understand how lucky I was to be able to participate in so much without worrying about the cost.

This isn't something a large percentage of the population can do. Is it right? No. Can it be fixed? I don't know. I doubt it. But providing some services to these people so that they can enjoy life a little more without living paycheck to paycheck may make life a little better for all of us.