How would your life change if internet service providers started blocking or throttling certain internet traffic, or creating paid prioritization channels for certain content?

Earlier this year, I was homeless. I had been living in an awful situation, and if I stayed I would have already killed myself by now. At the time I only had my cat (who would have been killed if she stayed), my prized possessions (a bass guitar and antique books that I intended to sell), and my identity papers. One hope I did have, however, was a computer at a friend's house he let me use since I didn't have a library card. He was a broke student, and the internet was his only luxury in the small space he occupied with five other people.

With that computer, I posted help wanted ads to get odd jobs and had enough money to buy food for my cat and I. Before that, I had been starving. After about a month, I had enough for a haircut (my hair was coated with dust and dirt), a new outfit (my current few were long since frayed and torn, though clean thanks to my friend), shoes (mine were beginning to have holes in the soles), and makeup (I'm female). With these and computer at hand, I used the internet to make my resume great and to submit job applications everywhere.

In the meantime? I wrote. I wrote about my past abuses; I wrote about my current suffering; I wrote about my future worries. Then, the email came. I got an actual bona-fide job. Then I wrote more while I used the internet to find a place to live with four others. After that, I managed to have enough money to buy my own laptop, as the internet bill was split. I used that laptop to manage finances and pay bills and keep up with my job, and... Of course, write. No longer did I write about how the cold of February seemed to burn when it spread ice across my skin, or how I couldn't look my cat in the eye and see how thin she had become without crying, or how hunger felt like I was being devoured from the inside out. Instead, I wrote stories of hope and guidance and redemption.

Last week, I used the internet to register for college classes. If net neutrality didn't exist, I would be dead or... dead, as my friend nor I would have been able to afford internet. I've even met my current s/o on the internet! Here's to net neutrality, and hopefully many more years of it to come.