My Journey From Homeless Drug Addict To Magna Cum Laude

_DankOpiAmp_ said:
Her education was a complete waste if she is now a low-paid social worker dealing with prisoners. It is the bottom of the barrel in terms of jobs. If she became a corporate executive I would be impressed. Now she is a 12-step junkie barely making enough to get by.

You are a pretentious, sanctimonious and condescending liberal, victor. At least I am not posturing on the internet for some sick validation.

The purpose of getting an education is to use it, for fulfillment and necessity. Hers was a waste. She may have enjoyed it while it lasted but it was purposeless once it was over. She did not need it for the job she got. An education is not just temporary fun. That is demented. She could have learned on her own without paying for it at a school if it was just for kicks. It is not that I don't approve of her job, Dur! She is not using what she accomplished and it was not necessary unless she just did it to prove that she could. She ended up get a meaningless degree just so she could get a convicted felon's low-paying, thankless crap-job. She isn't learning anymore.

She got a fucking business degree.... She could have gotten a relevant job.

She got the job of a convicted felon, like I said. I was basically trying to point out that they make it seem like if someone works hard and stops doing drugs they can live out their dreams when that is a complete fantasy they try to perpetuate while betting on peoples' failure. They are misleading readers with the mention of her excellent degree when society will only permit her to accomplish shit afterwards.

It is still possible she could have gotten a job somewhat relevant to her degree though; one someone with a record could get, if such a job exists.
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True. Doing social work is not using a business degree. I thought about becoming a social worker and getting a B.A. in it, and working with prisoners or people in a juvenile detention center but a friend of mine who did both told me how you have to put up with a lot of BS for low pay, and that pretty much everyone that has a B.A. in social work has abandoned doing work like that now since it's not worth it. My friend makes more money and has better benefits from working in a hospital doing maintenance than he did from doing social work with prisoners and kids/teens at juvenile detention centers.

If you're a convicted felon in the United States your job prospects are very limited.
 
Sorry slim, I should have just ignored it per my earlier plans, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I'll stop there.

PriestTheyCalledHim said:
If you're a convicted felon in the United States your job prospects are very limited.
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I was going to point this out too, so true. Not just in terms of employment (although that's a really significant one), voting rights are also pretty limited re felony disenfranchisement too. Always struck me as pretty backwards...
 
neversickanymore said:
I would get in cars with strangers and drive to another state just on the promise of getting high. It is only by the grace of God that I think I was able to survive.
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I honestly don't mean any disrespect by saying this, but I'm glad that no one decided to rape or gangbang you, then kill you and dump your body in a ditch.

I'm scared for an old friend of mine who is doing something similar to this - partying with strangers thousands of miles from home, possibly trading her assets for a high, or two. Don't wanna be the party pooper, but I find myself aching to remind her (if she even bothers to hear me out) to be careful because not everyone is willing to share their stash and act like a gentlemen because you've got some nice curves. God forbid I find out one day that she's gone missing in Europe - that will be a day I hope never arrives.

neversickanymore said:
When I was 17, I had a daughter, but even the unconditional love of a child couldn't coax me away from the demon of addiction. When she was 3, she went to live with her father.
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Good thing the father seemed to care - just saying, because, a lot of times they may not.

neversickanymore said:
I was now an IV meth user and couldn't fathom how my life could get any worse. I didn't have the courage to kill myself, but I also couldn't muster the will to stop using.
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It sounds like you were judged by others who were/are victims of propaganda - America is still full of them (well... the world is full of them). These hypocrites may have told you that you should just kill yourself instead of continuing to use drugs, because you're a burden on society, because you're up to no good, etc. They have no right to dictate what to do with your own body, what to put in it, etc.

neversickanymore said:
I did my time and, with the help of my family, I was paroled into a residential treatment center.
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Consider yourself very fortunate that, in your mid 30s, you still had a family who was there for you. Countless parolees do not, and chances are they don't get into a treatment center.

neversickanymore said:
At a 12-step meeting at the center one night...
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I can't stand AA and/or 12-step meetings. Maybe, I had a bad experience with what is usually a good program.

neversickanymore said:
While in treatment, I went back to school. I was 35. Within two years, I graduated from community college. I took out student loans and transferred to a university, where I graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in business administration. I went after my recovery like I did my drugs and found I was able to accomplish anything I truly wanted.
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How was/is this possible considering her record?

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While it's nice to read about someone who hit the lowest of the lows, and recovered (for the most part, as her record won't just magically go poof + any IV-transmitted diseases unfortunately also tend to stick around, and so forth), the sad truth is that most people never get this far because the system is rigged.

When I say it's rigged, any of you who have been unable to qualify for something important because of your record may understand what I mean, especially those of you whose record is solely non-violent possession of "this" or "that." Fucking shame... One of you could have made a huge difference for the future of mankind, but your record fucked you over. Way to go Uncle Sam.
 
neversickanymore said:
People need to be set free of this burden after a period of time and after they have completed their punishment and changed their lives. I think this should be the case for all crimes let alone drug "crimes."
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I agree, for the most part.

I'm just not so sure that I'd want to not know about, for example, a rehabilitated serial murderer who was (somehow) set free and residing in our neighborhood.

It's not that I'd want to know about him/her so that I could go and make that person's life harder than it is. More the opposite. I'd want to know about it so that I would know to keep my guard up when possibly confronted by this person alone at night, for example.

With respect to drug users being shipped to jail every day, I never would have expected that a country which places so much emphasis on freedom in its constitution, would lock more of its citizens up than any other nation on earth simply because they want to basically numb themselves free of some sort of pain. It remains the biggest irony this side of the (possibly not-so-defunct) 'Iron Curtain.'
 
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I'll say what no one else has the balls to say: I will bust a magna cum laude in the governments eye for dramatically reducing their tax base and citizens' freedoms for victimless drug crime records.
 
neversickanymore said:
A drug felony precludes people from being eligible for certain student loans involving the government, but people can still get student loans from other private sources I think.
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Correct, although even this can be difficult, but if you can find a private loan a felony history has negative impacts, like an interest rate that's high as fuck. And they're pretty high to begin with...
 
Dead at going to school for business then becoming a social worker.. lmao
 
I'm about to get my in the joint Public Health, concentration in Community Health Services or Health Management/Services (need to chose asap), and Public Policy masters program. Should be fun. All I need now is to be homeless and get good grades really. After all, I'm already "addicted" and highly doubt that would change in the next two, maybe even three years. I just need to make sure I am buy a new motorcycle for myself and give my car to my mom or sell it or something first though. Oh, and find someone - again perhaps my mom's studio outside her house - who doesn't mind if I use their shower/kitchen/sleep on their couch on rainy nights and whatnot. Okay so really I just need to get a bike again and choose my concentration and I'll be on my way :)

I've been totally homeless and broke, without any support whatsoever or anyone I know in the area I found myself in before, but I can still be homeless with a bike to get around and some place to crash when sleeping outside is fucked up, right?
 
_DankOpiAmp_ said:
Her education was a complete waste if she is now a low-paid social worker dealing with prisoners. It is the bottom of the barrel in terms of jobs. If she became a corporate executive I would be impressed. Now she is a 12-step junkie barely making enough to get by.
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I am a low paid art teacher--making far less than a social worker. I love my work, am a happier person for loving my work and I feel lucky every day to have a job that is in alignment with my nature and passions. I am impressed not by a person's title, salary or power but by how well he/she integrates work with his or her deepest self. The woman in the story gave her life meaning (as defined by her). That is not quantifiable.
 
^Very, very well said!

Back when I was in college I remember asking my best friend, what did he want to do with his life? His response? Make money. I was totally flabbergasted by this answer. I mean, I get it, but it just doesn't make sense to me. So many other things in life than money. I think the idea is like, money can be used to essentially buy happiness because you can use it to buy whatever service or material good (or russian bride or slave or whatever), thus money = happiness. This has been demonstrated over and over and OVER again just not to be the case - more often than not the riches among us are miserable while the poorer and low-middle/middle classes (if one could say a middle class actually exists at all... but that's another post) are generally more happier in their lives.

What do I want to do with my life? Enjoy it and be happy. Money plays into this, but it's hardly the priority and certainly nowhere near the end all have all...
 
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