What it's Like to Live On Welfare

People on Welfare Constantly Judged

I climbed my way out of a hole before. I dusted myself off and kept going. I have fallen again in a deeper hole and struggled getting my way out. I have been to the point where I lived on nothing but pop cans from week to week and ate nothing some nights so that my kids could eat. Why? Because I didn't qualify for food stamps after paying my rent, electricity, water and sewer bills. Bills that was where my money went. I had no phone, no internet and no car.

I lived in a rural area and the snide comment from a friend who had all those available stated, "You should get another job. Quit college and get another job." Quitting college was what I did. I got two jobs and paid the babysitter my money that I obtained from the one job, as that job did nothing but pay the babysitter. Welfare programs do not cover day care when you make an amount of $800 a month. Your foodstamps are also cut which living off of only $200 worth of food is pinching pennies and buying the cheapest items that you can in order to make it stretch for a period of a month. It was either that or sit in the dark, go without a place to live or not buy a car to get out of the hole I had fallen into.

I had finally saved up enough money to obtain a vehicle and drove myself to an appointment at the welfare building. I pulled into the parking lot and was relieved that the pile of rusted metal had made it that far. As I was walking across the parking lot, a brand new car whips into a parking space just before me as the driver paid no attention that I even existed. I wore that day some of my best clothes that my closet had to offer of hand me downs, good will hunts, and clothes that I still wore from high school. Out stepped the driver adorned with Nike shoes, a expensive person and gold jewelry on every finger and around her neck. Her makeup was caked on, her perfume smelled expensive, and her hair cut was not an at home job either. She snorted when she looked at me, rolled her eyes and continued on her way to the doors. I could tell where her money had gone. Strange, I thought to myself I didn't know that for sure.