KinseyH

Yep. And people who have good support systems - family and friends who are sober and employed and ambitious and confident and encouraging -- don't understand that without that support, everything is 100x exponentially harder. You have no role models, no mentors, no one to explain the social cues and politics of a company, no one to help you integrate into a world you've never been part of.

And you may have friends and family who view your ambition and striving as an insult. You think you're better than us? Home is not good enough for you?

What some of us take for granted--college counseling, scholarship applications, all that--is completely alien to some people. And that's not their fault.

I'm a middle aged, middle class white lady with a graduate degree and no 1st hand knowledge of Native American life. But I know cyclical poverty and hopelessness. It's really hard to break out of. My dad did it, and his family still act like it was some kind of miracle and not hard work and an iron will to achieve a better life.

Not sure the point I was trying to make. Very stoned on cough medicine. Just trying to say, some people are born with the stack decked against them and it's easy to say they should just try harder. If you've never been on that position, you can't say ou would've overcome all those obstacles.

"You can't revise a blank page, but you can revise crap."

Oh wow - I didn't know that! (I know more about online security than my 82yo mom, but considerably less than many people on Reddit) - I recently let my Norton subscription lapse, figuring I'd go with WD and maybe a free antivirus program.

That's a sublime simile, and I appreciate the info!

HOSPITAL SOX FTW

I've been in the hospital as an adult several times, 2 for Very Serious Things.

Keep the grippy socks.