I remember first coming to this community (had a different account then) 13 years ago. I was a high school dropout, broke, with a new baby, living in one room of my MIL trailer. I remember feeling defeated and hopeless. This seemed like the inevitable conclusion to my life, no matter what choices I made, I was destined to be trailer trash and here I was... Except, I had this tiny little boy in my room, looking up at me with all the love and trust of a newborn. Asking myself was this the life I was prepared to accept for him and I couldn't accept that. With guilt and shame driving me, I was determined to start.
When I first went back to school, I wanted to work in the film industry. It took a year an half going down that path to finally be honest with myself that this wasn't a good idea. But because I had started, I had taken some computer science classes along the way. Preparation met opportunity.
My first job out of school only paid $15 an hour, but I worked my ass off and most importantly I kept a good relationships with the company and coworkers, (it's as simply as going to lunch once a year) and when a chance to work at up and coming startup came along, They asked for referrals, my former coworkers and my own hard work, got me the job. Preparation met opportunity.
We bought a house in 2015 using a USDA rural housing loan. zero down required. USDA has a very generous definition of rural. Every dollar we spent on the house was spent with resell in mind. We sold the home this year for a ridiculous profit. Preparation met fucking amazing opportunity.
Covid forced me home, working from home had never been an desirable option before. After a year of remote work, I realized how much I loved it and with an insane amount of money in our bank account, we jumped to a cheaper state and bought a house we do love. Preparation met opportunity.
Not everything will turn out, my second job was toxic as shit, barely paid more than the first, We had just moved from one crappy apartment to another crappy apartment, in a slightly safer part of town, I had been promised a small xmas bonus when I was hired, this was the first year I felt like I would be able to give my family a decent xmas, three day before, management changed their minds and decided I didn't qualify for the bonus. It's a small thing but man it made feel like the biggest fucking failure in the world.
TLDR: Just start, doesn't matter what, just start. Then be honest with yourself so you can adjust as needed, maintain your relationships, no matter how trivial and allow your preparation to meet it's opportunity.
Submitted October 02, 2021 at 10:29AM by 3vil-monkey https://ift.tt/3FeRsxW
