Living in the Land of Poverty

“Poverty is the worse form of violence" Mahatma Gandhi”

Written in January of 2013

Tonight I am hanging out at a local McDonalds with my boyfriend. We have no internet so we hang out here to search for jobs and fill out applications, send in resumes and cover letters. We joke and call this our “Poor Man’s Date”, but we know the real reason we’re here. It is because we’re too poor to afford internet. I know it’s bad, but we’re the lucky ones. We have a car, a home, a family and laptops. So, we share a soda and french fries from the change we scrounged up and look for work online. I just finished three months of my sixth-month internship with those more fortunate than I and I am once again fighting to not panic. I do not know what I will do if I go back on state assistance. I have gotten used to the ten dollars an hour, even though it is still not enough for a family of four to live off of, but it is better than what the state offers me, five hundred A MONTH. That doesn’t even pay my rent. Once again I find myself reaching deep inside myself for the hope and faith to believe that life will get better for us. Welcome to another day in the life of an American family in poverty.

the Truth in Love, 

Heidi L. Shepherd