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| Image by NCReedplayer, via Flickr |
After my first semester at SFSU, I left San Francisco to spend the summer in Minnesota. A few of those Minnesota experiences are included in my Day 27 post - My Guardian Angel. Mom knew I was coming home for that summer. She is the one who lined up the driving and translating opportunity for me. My previous year of Spanish at Laney College was put to excellent use that summer. I even learned a little of the Bolivian accent which doesn't trill the initial or double r in words, it turns that sound into a "z" sound. So instead of a rolled R at the beginning of both words in the translation of Red River, Rio Rojo, the Bolivian version was more like Zio Zojo. As I mentioned in Day 27, I wasn't paid for my summer of driving and translating, and I had just about enough money to get myself back to San Francisco in time for the second semester without a lot of spare change for anything, including rent.
I had arranged to share an apartment with one of my classmates, Lynn, so I didn't have to look for a place to live this time. I just had to find a job to be able to pay both the rent and the fees for classes. California residents didn't have to pay tuition at SFSU, but there were still fees, so attending wasn't without some cost.
One of the first things I did was set up a bank account at Hibernia Bank, a local San Francisco bank that promoted the personalization of checks in whatever way their customers wanted. Since life seemed to be going my way, I selected the phrase "It's gonna be all right" at the top of my check blanks - right above my name. I had no idea how much fun it would be to hand over checks with that saying at the top. Many people thought I meant that the check was going to be all right and no one seemed to question it. Life really did seem like it was going to be all right. A few weeks later, Hibernia Bank asked for my permission to use a copy of my check on one of their billboards, minus my address and phone number. They paid for my next order of check blanks in exchange for my permission. Not much, but it was more evidence that the slogan on my check was accurate.
I knew I might have some trouble paying for everything out of whatever part-time job I might get, so I applied for a student loan and was approved for enough to pay my rent, leaving me with a much smaller amount to have to earn through part-time work.
I was able to schedule all of my classes for Mondays, Wednesday, or Fridays or in the evening so that I could work all day Tuesdays and Thursdays. I signed up with a temporary agency that was able to find me day at a time assignments or five-hour shifts that didn't interfere with my classes. It looked like I was going to make it after all.
Then one Friday, when I was at a five-hour shift assignment downtown, my throat hurt so much I could hardly swallow. The woman I was helping sent me home because she could see how uncomfortable I was. That weekend, I slept straight through until Monday morning when I called my temporary agency supervisor to explain that I just couldn't go to work that day. I headed for the University health center where the first doctor I saw prescribed antibiotics after diagnosing me with strep throat. I went home, took the medicine, and slept some more. A lot more. By the following Friday, my throat was no better, so I headed back to the health center. The first doctor brought in a second doctor since the treatment should have knocked out strep throat. The second doctor took one look at my throat and then felt the glands at my neck and announced that I had mononucleosis. She sent me home with instructions to slow down, stop working, drop half my classes, and get lots and lots of rest.
It didn't take long to figure out I wasn't going to make it financially. That first week, I received a letter from the organization I had volunteered with that summer. Along with the letter was a check for $100, a token of their appreciation for my work that summer. That $100 check paid the rent the first month I was sick.
But I knew there weren't going to be any more token checks. I had been approved for a student loan, but I still hadn't received the money. One of my friends suggested that I apply for food stamps. My first thought was absolutely not. I was not going to stoop so low as to accept welfare. My friend insisted that nearly everyone in his class at law school was on food stamps. It was a necessary means to continue attending graduate school which would lead to a professional degree that would allow the recipient to become gainfully employed - at a handsome lawyer's salary - which would ensure the recipient would make a greater contribution to society in the future. I kinda-sorta accepted that explanation, although I still wasn't convinced that it was "right."
Without a lot of other options since I couldn't work, I applied for food stamps, and I was approved. Each month I received $77 worth of food stamps for which I had to pay $70. I received food stamps for about a year, until I had sufficiently recovered from mononucleosis to get a part-time job at the American Language Institute which led to my being selected as one of their student teachers. So that means I received a total of $84.00 in government-subsidized food stamps, not even enough to pay for a month's rent. It took awhile for me to use those food stamps without being self-conscious. I had to separate my food items from the non-food items I needed but that food stamps couldn't be used to purchase - not cigarettes or liquor because I didn't buy those anyway, but paper and feminine hygiene products, for example. After the year, I was happy not to receive them any longer. But I also stopped looking down on those around me who still did. I don't know how much each of them had to pay for the total they received. And it turns out my friend was right. Because I got food stamps, I was able to complete my Masters degree which brought me eventually to the Department of State where I still am contributing.
I had arranged to share an apartment with one of my classmates, Lynn, so I didn't have to look for a place to live this time. I just had to find a job to be able to pay both the rent and the fees for classes. California residents didn't have to pay tuition at SFSU, but there were still fees, so attending wasn't without some cost.
 |
| Image by Jeremy Brooks, via Flickr |
I knew I might have some trouble paying for everything out of whatever part-time job I might get, so I applied for a student loan and was approved for enough to pay my rent, leaving me with a much smaller amount to have to earn through part-time work.
I was able to schedule all of my classes for Mondays, Wednesday, or Fridays or in the evening so that I could work all day Tuesdays and Thursdays. I signed up with a temporary agency that was able to find me day at a time assignments or five-hour shifts that didn't interfere with my classes. It looked like I was going to make it after all.
Then one Friday, when I was at a five-hour shift assignment downtown, my throat hurt so much I could hardly swallow. The woman I was helping sent me home because she could see how uncomfortable I was. That weekend, I slept straight through until Monday morning when I called my temporary agency supervisor to explain that I just couldn't go to work that day. I headed for the University health center where the first doctor I saw prescribed antibiotics after diagnosing me with strep throat. I went home, took the medicine, and slept some more. A lot more. By the following Friday, my throat was no better, so I headed back to the health center. The first doctor brought in a second doctor since the treatment should have knocked out strep throat. The second doctor took one look at my throat and then felt the glands at my neck and announced that I had mononucleosis. She sent me home with instructions to slow down, stop working, drop half my classes, and get lots and lots of rest.
It didn't take long to figure out I wasn't going to make it financially. That first week, I received a letter from the organization I had volunteered with that summer. Along with the letter was a check for $100, a token of their appreciation for my work that summer. That $100 check paid the rent the first month I was sick.
 |
| Image by Mercy Health, via Flickr |
Without a lot of other options since I couldn't work, I applied for food stamps, and I was approved. Each month I received $77 worth of food stamps for which I had to pay $70. I received food stamps for about a year, until I had sufficiently recovered from mononucleosis to get a part-time job at the American Language Institute which led to my being selected as one of their student teachers. So that means I received a total of $84.00 in government-subsidized food stamps, not even enough to pay for a month's rent. It took awhile for me to use those food stamps without being self-conscious. I had to separate my food items from the non-food items I needed but that food stamps couldn't be used to purchase - not cigarettes or liquor because I didn't buy those anyway, but paper and feminine hygiene products, for example. After the year, I was happy not to receive them any longer. But I also stopped looking down on those around me who still did. I don't know how much each of them had to pay for the total they received. And it turns out my friend was right. Because I got food stamps, I was able to complete my Masters degree which brought me eventually to the Department of State where I still am contributing.
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