Who Do I Think I Am??

This one's about having nothing.

THE PROMPT: "How would it affect your life if we suddenly lost all of the services and technologies we rely on everyday? No electricity or gas service? No water or sewer? No telephone? No television? No internet? No radio? No gasoline?"

Wow, way to get all "Little House On The Prarie" on me...oh, wait, I think they had running water at least.

Sad to say, but in this day and age that was almost actually me once. I'm not so proud to admit that I had no electricity for a few months...which meant no internet, no hot water, and limited access to a phone and a radio. And no, I wasn't in jail.

And ya know what? I managed. I didn't spend a lot of time at home. I took short showers. It was spring/summer, so I wasn't very reliant on gas for heat. I had a battery-powered charger for my phone. Got most of what I needed of the internet from the phone, and whatever more I needed I got from the library. Didn't even know I had batteries in my radio til I tried it one day. And when I lost my car, I realized I was fortunate enough to live in a place that was only a 15-20 minute walk away from all of the things we consider necessities.

It wasn't easy being unemployed, living on your own, and having only basically the place you live and the clothes you wear. It was definitely a rough stretch of life. But sometimes that's what we have to do to be able to appreciate where we are now. A lot of people will never understand what it's like shaving down your life to its last dollar, and not being sure if that dollar is gonna be with you the next week.

I was pretty much one rung above homeless, and that's because I had lived in my apartment for so long that my landlord considered me family. He let me slide here and there on the rent, knowing that I'd bounce back eventually. And that's one debt I'm still repaying, although it's almost done.

Without getting into too much detail, I put myself away in a hospital for awhile. Stress was getting to me in a bad way and I couldn't function normally. I had to give up everything, and I mean everything, to do a reboot on my life. I gave up a $15/hr. job, a nice car, a lot of people, and all of the spoils that came with that...just to preserve my mental health and well-being.

It's easy to write about what we'd do in the situation of having nothing. It's another thing to be pretty much living it. I survived, but I don't know many who could. A lot of you probably have family who would bail you out in that situation...I didn't. How did I do it? Perseverence, mainly. There were a lot of days that I didn't get out of bed, but I made the days that I did count. I got lucky, too...you don't make it out of something like that without a little bit of luck. In my case, luck really was a lady . She gave me a reason to live when every other door seemed like it was slamming shut on me. She was that great beacon of light in my darkness. She was every cliche every romantic movie has spit at you while I was every cliche any PSA regarding failure has ever delivered. 'Nuff said.

I guess the moral of this entry is find someone who loves you when the lights go out and you have damn near nothing. At the end of the day, at least you have love.

MUSICAL BREAK:

Gotta say, I still had it better than this guy I think. Just one song that kept me on the positive tip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_WfF6hf2E&ob=av2e

It's horrible quality, the video. But if I can emerge with somewhat of a smile on my face, you learn to live with lower quality things.

VITAL STATS:

The views are shockingly through the roof.

I don't have much to add. I've been trying to relax. This prompt took a lot out of me. I don't share this kinda stuff very easily. But I had to.

That's it for tonight. Gonna make the best outta this vacation. GOODNIGHT NOW!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbLRqJ3T4DY&feature=related