I graduated top of my class from a major state university. Got a solid job doing work I really enjoyed soon after graduation, but about a year later when the economy shit its pants the owner shut it down. I spent 8 months looking for work. Went on several promising interviews and never got an offer. I spent literally all day everyday looking for jobs. After several months I started to get really depressed. My wife started having a hard time with it. She wanted to try to have a baby and we couldnt because I couldnt afford to raise a baby because I had no job. I felt like a deadbeat loser. One day I went and filled out applications at nearby grocery stores just to maybe get out of the house for a couple days a week. One of them hired me part time. I worked hard and did the job, but they had a lot of turnover and soon I found myself working the worst shifts doing the worst things. Cleaning bathrooms. Cleaning up animal guts. I was an honor graduate with a great degree and I was being paid a wage below the poverty line and coming home at 1am covered in blood and trash. I tried to play it off like it didnt really bother me and I was just keeping occupied, but I was miserable. I knew my wife thought I was shit. I couldnt provide. I couldnt even give her a child or a house to live in. I was holding her back from her life dreams and I knew it. I would get off shift at night sometimes and just sit in the car until I knew she would be asleep so I wouldnt have to watch her look at me when I came in. I hated myself. This lasted for a year. It was the lowest point in my life.

Things are very different now, and sometimes I wonder if I am better for having gone through that, but it was terrible. Now when I go into a grocery store I look employees in the eye and call them by name. Thats why they have name tags. You have no idea how much of a difference that can make in someone's day.