“What most people don’t understand is that when you’re poor, you are constantly drawing lines in the sand. Why? Because being poor means you don’t have choices.”
Sure, I hear people say, ‘Well, you could have done things differently.’ But I can tell you, it aint’ like that.”
“When you’re struggling, it’s not like you’ve got a bunch of options. And when you don’t have options, you’re forced to do things that you never thought you’d do–you live where you never thought you would and you work at jobs that ain’t fit for any person–all in the name of getting by.”
“It’s disgusting the things you have to do to make it from day to day when you’re poor–but what are you gonna do? You just swallow your pride and when someone gives you an order, you nod your head.”
“At night, you tell yourself, ‘I’ll never do that again–I don’t care how hungry or tired or desperate I am.”
“But then the next time rolls around and the squeeze gets put on you. Suddenly, the lines you’ve drawn magically disappear. And when you keep doing that over and over again for years at a time, well pretty soon those lines don’t mean a goddamn thing.”
“When you get to be my age, every day brings some kind of new and degrading compromise. You try like hell not to get used it; but you just keep spiraling down and down.”
“All you can do is hope that you finally land on something soft.”
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