What if you woke up one day and you found that without warning your whole life had been completely flipped upside down? What if your house, your job, your financial security and everything you knew were all of a sudden ripped away and you were forced to start from the absolute bottom. What would you do? Would you breakdown, fall apart and give up or would you brush yourself off, pick yourself up and will yourself to move forward?
It’s a scary thought and frankly I don’t know what I would do. Obviously I would like to think I would do the latter and beat back adversity and overcome the challenge but really I just don’t know because I’ve never been there.
When I spent my day at the local FoodBank I was quite surprised by the types of people that I met there and the stories that they had. Most were once regular people with normal lives, families and jobs just like everyone else. But at some point along the way all of their lives took a drastic turn which landed them to face this difficult question of survival.
This really impacted me as it completely undermined the predisposition I had of the FoodBank client. These people weren’t lazy unmotivated individuals living off the system, and most weren’t using the FoodBank by choice. They were single parents, widowed spouses, injured workers, or a whole host of other individuals that had all experienced that drastic shift in their lives and were now struggling to survive.
This eye opening experience really put my budget month into perspective as it changed the way I looked at the importance of what I was doing. In the beginning my goal was just my own personal development and knowledge exploration. Now after understanding the hardships that others just like me were facing everything felt like it was more real and important. What if something drastic was to happen to me and my life? Could I survive it? And if I couldn’t survive with all my resources and prior knowledge how were they managing to make it?
My quest for understanding finally came to a head when I met Chelsea, a single mom of two and a volunteer at the FoodBank. Her story more than just inspire me, it changed the way I look at people, society and life. She has allowed me to share her interview and I hope you will find it as educational and inspirational as I did.
Intro:
Chelsea grew up in a normal Canadian middle class home with her mom and her younger sister and by all accounts lived a pretty average life. She had friends, got good grades in school and enjoyed hiking and playing outdoors. When she graduated from High School she decided to pursue a career in nursing so she left home and enrolled in the BCIT nursing program. After completing her diploma she transferred to UVIC to complete her degree but after a year decided like many students that she wanted to explore the world a bit before graduating. She took a semester off and traveled to England with some friends.
This is where she met her husband, a British doctor and a man of reasonable upper class wealth. Chelsea was wisked away into a new life of higher class living. After their first child Chelsea’s husband encouraged her to stop paying her Canadian nursing dues as his one income was more than enough to sustain them. Chelsea agreed and committed to being a stay at home mom.
A few years past and after trying for some time without any luck Chelsea finally became pregnant with their second child. Everything seemed to be going so well for them both. Chelsea was happy, she had a family, a nice house and financial security. Then one day she woke up and everything changed. Out of no where her husband told her he didn’t like the life that they had together and wanted rid of both her and the children. He told her she couldn’t live with him in England any more and he packed them up and shipped them back to Canada with nothing more than a few bags of clothes and $1500. He had deserted them.
Chelsea was left in destitution. She couldn’t work and had very little options to take care of herself and her children. After bouncing around from a few bad living environments in Vancouver Island and Kamloops she found her way here to Kelowna. She now supports her family on a student loan that she received from the government which after books and tuition only leaves her roughly $200 per month to feed her family. Chelsea is hoping to finish her 2 year online course as a Human Service Worker in just 10 months as she knows she can only afford to live off of the loan until then. Amazingly she also finds the time to still volunteer at the FoodBank and her children’s school in the hot lunch program.
After being deserted and left with nothing, Chelsea has humbly overcome adversity, fought social stigmas and financial obstacles to get where she is today.
This is her story.
The Interview:
(Sorry that the audio is a kinda crap, struggles of a first time recorder)
New Perspective:
Speaking with Chelsea about her experiences was both inspiring and difficult.
On the one hand I’m so impressed that after all of the hardships she has overcome she still remains positive and is working towards not just building a better life for herself and her family but through her new education she is trying to help others with the same social issues.
On the other hand I am saddened by her story of social discrimination and ostracization. I believe her story of prejudgment and social outcasting is representative of many lower income individuals who’s only crime is being dealt a bad hand.
Listening to Chelsea’s story has given me a new perspective on who these members of our community are and the struggles that they face. It also makes me think just how fragile life is and how easily things can change. As I continue on this journey to scale my life I feel both thankful for what I have and more inspired then ever to accomplish my goals.
Final thoughts:
I may not be able to affect social change on a large scale but after meeting Chelsea I feel I owe it to her to try to help her with some of the challenges she described. She’s agreed to meet with me again so I can share some of the budgeting strategies I’ve learned over my month and I’ve invited a friend who’s a Nutritionist to join us to hopefully help us both eat and live a bit healthier.
I’ll report back once more with Chelsea at the end of the month to get her final thoughts.
