When the Only Way is Up

I am entering week 2 of living in Baltimore as a member of the greater unemployed.

It is unfortunately easy to pity yourself when life has handed you an empty box of chocolates after you've graduated from college with a head filled with hopes and dreams. You've traversed the entire country on a bicycle, utilizing your own physical and mental strength to climb mountains and defeat ungodly temperatures. Then, you enter the real world...and it sucks. Sometimes it seems that people don't give a crap if you've saved a life or saved a thousand lives. Rather, the world is only made up of numbers that decide the course of your life, and that is it. As a self-proclaimed idealist, it's a very harsh perspective to throw out there. Despite all the terrible things that happen in the world, and all the terrible people that let them happen, there are a select few who have the ability to change the world (and have done so).

But we are all human, and even the best of us are put down when the odds seem stacked against us. Coming from a school where med school is a very common anticipation, I have seen people crash and burn from the stress and pressure that such a process wreaks on them. On the 4K, I saw the toughest of people rubbed raw by injuries to the point of screams and tears. I have been reduced to sitting in the bathroom with the door locked and crying my eyes out in an absolute stupor as to why I have filled out trillions of applications and talked to dozens of people, only to end up back at square one.

And then, all these people who, aside from their resilience, have just hit rock bottom, come together and realize they are not alone. And what's more, that they aren't quite stuck to the floor. There's a way out of this mess, but it only comes with accepting the help of others.

So, my advice to any of my unemployed peers out there is this: don't lock yourself in the bathroom. Let someone in (not into the bathroom, per say. That's just strange). Chances are, they've got something they've been itching to get out, too. Before you know it, you've got the energy to keep going. We've come this far. Who is to say that it's over yet? Only you have that capability. It's your life, after all.