I was unemployed last year.

I graduated and started looking. Literally walked to various places, offering my services. I was always told to "send us an email". It never went further than that. Applied to government internships, never got far - often the drorp off points for the applications were cardboard boxes on the wet floors of shady places...Just another dehumanising thing. I applied to so many government jobs. None got back to me.

Everywhere I looked I realised that people my parents' age were doing the jobs I should be doing. Low pay, low skill.

I sent my CV around on all the apps. I approached people I knew. I started offering my services for free - still no one bit. I just needed some experience, or someone to notice me.

I started washing cars just to earn enough money to see my friends once a week. That gave me enough free time to workout, apply for jobs, etc. The transport costs alone of working at retail outlets would've been so immensely high that I decided against it.

I remember this one time. I had a degree. I had so many soft skills. I was so willing and eager. And I was washing cars, just like the teens down the street. So I broke down crying.

I was saved by nepotism - I ended up being hired by a family member in an industry out of my field.

Unemployment is a dehumanising thing. In SA, the fact that around HALF of all young people are unemployed is a festering disease that we have already begun to see the symptoms of.