Finding The Silver Lining

Finding The Sliver Lining
by C. Jones


I never gave two thoughts about the failing economy until my family and I fell into its crippling clutches. I remember being the envy of all our friends because of all our material possessions. I remember sitting in my room on a warm afternoon and realizing how absolutely lucky we were to have everything we ever wanted and the things we didn't have we were able to buy. But when things started looking bleak I suddenly became interested in the economy all at once. Searching, searching for answers and words of comfort. I did so much research that I thought my brain was going to explode. I felt like no one knew what to do and so they were just pulling solutions out of the air to calm the hungry minds of society. Slowly the blows from our economy [economy is a noun, economic is a adjective. you wan the adj form here] crisis became more violent on my family's life style. My grandmother always told me though,"there's always a silver lining on even the darkest cloud, you just have to be willing to see it."

Before my family started to feel the full effects of the economic catastrophe the adults had good paying jobs. Especially my fiance and I. So when I decided to quit my job, despite my employer's opinion, I had little to no worries. But my employer strongly disagreed with my decision to leave, mainly because of how bad the economy had become, but like I've said before I never gave any thought about it because I felt as long as someone had a job we would be fine. I felt untouchable. Then on April 1st at 10:00 pm my fiance sluggishly walked in our bedroom with a scowl on his face. Something was wrong

"They practically fired me," he said grimly. My heart sank as reality set in. I knew now we were in trouble.

"What do you mean practically?" I said looking at him a with great concern.

"My supervisor came up to me today..." There was a dim light hanging on his face from an open window which made the silent tear on his cheek gleam.

"He said the store manager wants me gone and if I want it to look good on my resume I should quit now before he decides to fire me." The silent tear slinked off the side of his face as I watched my future husband let down his guard. It was heavy with emotions that night. We tried to figure out a way to heal our situation, so our solution was to sell everything we worked so hard to attain. We sold all our games, our systems, our 52 inch flat screen HD TV, and even our car just to keep from going hungry. We had to start eating at St. Anthony's in Redwood City. It was a church who once a day between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm fed the more unfortunate people for free. We would wait in the long line that smelled of poverty, which lead us to the buffet that smelled of yesterday's meat loaf. I remember the screeching of chairs being dragged across the floor, and the chattering conversations of parents looking for work as a baby cries off in the distance. We were no longer living, we were surviving.

I found myself struggling to find a job and wanted to know why the economy was as bad as it was. I wanted answers and solutions now damn it! I soon started looking for comfort in our new president. I wanted to hear his quick reliable fix and his words of "wisdom". Unfortunately for me the first of his words weren't comforting and his fix wasn't so quick. I wanted to hear that he will fix everything instantaneously so my family can finally live again. Instead I heard this:
"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years. The unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. We could lose a generation of potential and promise, as more young Americans are forced to forgo dreams of college or the chance to train for the jobs of the future. And our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world... It will take time, perhaps many years, but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence. We can restore opportunity and prosperity."


I felt like we were doomed. It seemed we, as a nation, had dug ourselves in a hole that was too deep to get out of. In president Obama's Speech he also went on to say that things will eventually get better. He promised that the government will stop the unnecessary spending and start spending it on more unemployment plans and what not. I was still skeptical considering that the government had already spent a lot of money but no one has seen it go to any good use. The California budget isn't doing much better. It seems as though with this crisis the government knows what to do but choose to step around the problem instead of fixing it. They continue to use quick fix solutions like borrowing money or collecting taxes earlier in the year. I agree with Michael Cohen, deputy legislative analyst, when he said the only way to eliminate such shortfalls is for lawmakers to take the reins and either cut spending or raise ongoing revenue

About a month after my Obama research I remember waking up to a very loud and frustrated conversation being held outside my bedroom window. The morning May sun blinded me until my eyes began to adjust. The Representative of the city of East Palo Alto was again ranting and raving about our junkyard looking house, only this time she had fire department, police and animal control to accompany her. I can see the expression on my father in-law's face. It said, "Can our lives get any worse?"

Now, I will admit, our living conditions had been quite unsanitary, but what do you expect?! The only working individual in my collapsing house hold went blind right before this economical catastrophe hit like a ton of bricks. Because of that it seemed like the only means of survival was to collect as much junk in our yard as possible. That way we can recycle it for profit to pay our $1,700 rent and feed every mouth on our rented property. But of course, she didn't care. She didn't care that my family only got to eat maybe once a day because the only money we had was barely keeping a roof over our heads. She didn't care that because of the economy no one can find even the most degrading job. So here I am watching these people of the law invade our home with no sympathy to our financial situation. To make matters worse, I had a doctors appointment later that day and they told me I was about two months pregnant. My heart leaped into my throat. How was I going to provide for another life? I mean we are barely scraping by and now I have a baby on the way. Although I was told left and right by my side of the family that I have ruined all my chances at life by getting pregnant, it did not extinguish my dreams of becoming a writer. Even though I knew that I most likely I was not going to get the high class education of a university I was not going to let stop me. I decided I was still going to school pregnant or not. I was still going to live me [my] dream. I was determined to prove the very unsupportive part of my family wrong. Of course even at Canada, a community college, I could not afford the fees so I found my self applying for Financial Student Aid, BOG Waver , and EOPS.

But then we received an eviction notice and I nearly broke down in tears. Not only were we practically starved now we are loosing the roof that has kept us safe for so many years. I felt like my dreams and high hopes for my life were slowly being scrubbed away like burnt on cheese after the last of the lasagna is inhaled from the pan. We suddenly found our selves applying for benefits we thought we would never need. Things like Wic, Welfare, and food-stamps, desperately looking for ways to survive. I remember having conversations with my fiance before this sad point in time about how we would never need any of these benefits because we would be successful and happy. I didn't bother me too much because I grew up with these benefits, but he felt like it made him less of a man. As if applying for this help was the easy solution not the right one. [fragment] There had been times where he was close to tears just thinking about what we had been reduced to. I was constantly reassuring him this was only temporary and we would still become successful. Sure enough I wasn't going to eat my words. My fiance had a nice bit of retail management experience he acquired from his last employment so he managed to get a part time temporary job in sales at Ikea. He anticipated with enough hard work he could show his worth and excel back into management. It seemed that things were finally turning around. Not too long after I got a little part time job as a teacher's aid and slowly we started living again. The silver lining was no longer silver. It was looking platinum.