There’s Life After Death, and Taxes
By Stacey Gallow
July 6, 2009

When I was sixteen years old, I was driving a 2004 Lexus LS430 and my dad paid people to do everything for me. We had a live-in maid until I was 10, and then two housekeepers who came twice a week who cleaned my room and did my laundry. Then my dad's personal assistant did everything else, from going to the store and buying me toothpaste to filling my car up with gas for me twice a week. When I was seventeen years old, the Lexus was sold and I was driving a 2002 Toyota Camry. Now at twenty-one years old I help my dad change the oil in my car and even had to replace my own starter by myself last week. With the recent change in economy I've noticed an almost equal change in myself.

My dad dropped out of school as a high school freshman and started working as a mechanic at a truck-body company when he was sixteen. Being the only worker who spoke good English, he bonded with the manager who ended up selling the company to him when he retired. My dad grew the company, sold it, and started working as a manager and engineer at another truck-body company called Carter Industries that he originally planned on buying from the owner. Except it started going under right about the same time my parents decided to get divorced, when I was sixteen years old, but my dad never told me much about what was going on – he always tried to protect me.

But the day I got back from Spring Break senior year of high school and I noticed my Lexus was gone, I knew something was going on. At first my dad had said it was just temporary, that I had nothing to worry about. So after a few months of not having a car I remember being home with my friends when my uncle pulled up in front of my house, with a car that we kind of had to laugh at.

“Surprise!” He said, getting out of the car and walking towards us. And then I knew what was going on, so when he tossed the keys to me I didn’t try to catch them, and instead watched them fall to ground as everyone else just stared at me.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted my Lexus back. My best friend Alicia picked up the car keys and held onto them for me. “Stace, it’s really not that bad.”

Easy for her to say, her parents had just bought her a brand new Audi since she had her first one since sophomore year and I was staring at a stupid, used gold Toyota that was sitting in front of my house.

“But dad, it’s used!” I complained once everyone had left.

“It’s pre-owned not used.” He corrected me, like it made a difference, but it didn’t. There was no way I was showing up to school in it, let alone letting it sit in my driveway for everyone to see when they drove by.
But that day my dad sat me down and explained everything to me. My parents had finally settled the divorce agreement and our house would be put up for sale for them to split evenly after I graduated from high school. My dad was going to use his part of the money to buy and restore the failing business he was working at.
June 2006 I graduated from Woodside High School, and by July 2006 my house was appraised at $1.2 million and put up on the market a couple weeks after that. It’s been three years since I graduated from high school, the listing price of my house has dropped seven different times, the house has been off of the market twice and has gone through escrow a couple times. Currently our house is listed at $728,000 but just got an offer last week of $675,000 that my parents are actually considering – almost half of what the house was appraised for three years ago.

My dad says we have to take the offer or he has to file bankruptcy, and if the house doesn’t sell my mom is taking my brother and sister and moving to Sacramento with them where she can afford to pay rent. I was accepted to Michigan State my senior year in high school, but my dad decided I had to wait until we had the money to send me. So I’ve been at Cañada for seven semesters waiting for something to happen that is ultimately going to make the decision of what happens in my future.

If my dad files bankruptcy, he’s not going to be able to qualify for a new loan to buy a new house if ours ever sells. He’s not going to have good credit either, so renting a place will be practically impossible. The economy is failing, my parents are struggling, and I have no idea what is going to happen next.

I had been working at the Sequoia YMCA in Redwood City since I was seventeen as a Childwatch Attendant, Cheer teacher, and a Kids Fitness Instructor. A raise every six months meant that I was making $15/hour and in December 2008 I was fired. I ride dirt bikes a lot, it takes up most of my free time and almost all of my money. So I qualified for unemployment but was really trying to find a new job, thinking that it couldn't be that hard. But the economy has messed everything up, because I have office experience, child care experience, and customer service experience and can't even get an interview anywhere.

So it's been seven months, still on unemployment, and still trying to find any job at this point. My dad was laughing at me the other day, when I told him I had applied at Ross. A couple years ago I was refusing to shop there, and now I'm trying to work there. The economy crisis has changed everything in my life, but I'm a lot happier with the person I am now than the person I used to be. So even though things have been hard, and even though there have been struggles, this has helped me learn an important life lesson that I’m not sure I would have learned any other way.