It started as just another letter in the pile that Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean gets every week. Like a lot of us lately, the letter-writer was coping with unemployment and asked E. Jean for help:
I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can.
The rest of the letter recounted the story of the homeless young woman applying for a job and bombing the interview. Here’s what E. Jean had to say, after two paragraphs of useful and inspirational job search advice:
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This is what you did with your letter: You knocked me out with your courage and spirit. I am therefore, Miss Not Hopeless, offering you a four-month internship. Of course it’s the most hideously humdrum internship in America. You’ll be stuck with the tedious job of organizing research for my book, transcribing interviews, and analyzing data from 1,800,000 pages (not a misprint) of a college sex survey I did on Facebook. I looked you up and discovered you’re on the West Coast and that you write a highly entertaining blog. You possess a brain and access to a computer. Excellent! If you accept this internship, you’ll telecommute to my East Coast mountain office one hour a day, six days a week. At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern.
Three cheers for E. Jean. Methinks Dear Abby could take some lessons from her.
thats great that she can intern for an hour, and still have high hopes. You are really an inspiration to all, because in this era of time we seem to be going in a direction were so many people are becoming homeless. Iam Lucky i guess, or sort of. To be bless with my path of direction. I had some hard pitfalls becoming barriers that I have also overcome with attaing my B.S. In human servicesin 2008. Now working on my Masters in education. So I appauld you for your hard work and determination in not giving up. Stay focus, and you will achieve your dreams.
Thanks to yahoo news, I’m reading about You and your never giving up spirit; well done; the world needs more of you types ….motor on.
I just wanted to say I just started readng Bri’s blog about homelessness. As I am one of those single mothers in Tampa with a teenage son who IS homeless.We struggle daily. With alot of things. I have endlessly tried getting a job. I got turned down for public assistance. Sanctioned until Nov.1. I didn’t get into trouble with the system to cause the sanction. I merely wasn’t available for an appointment because I did not KNOW about it as I had left the state on a family emergency. A year later and much drama later and trying to survive with my son? We decided to come home to Florida. I gave up a home, a car, a cat and all our worldly possessions to help one of our own and I come back to stay away from the drama, and attempt to start over? And get met with one obstacle after another. I can’t go back to school. I already owe on a student loan. Not elgible for rental assistance. Shelters here? In Tampa they are a joke. You have to be an alcoholic, a prostitute, a drug addict or mentally deranged in order to get in. One requires you have a job. OR be on cash assistance. Salvation Army? After 5 nights they charge you $10 a night. One shelter ONLY caters to alcoholic men? There is no where to go. I don’t have a car so I can’t live in a car. Don’t even have a bike. We’ve lost everything along the way and now we’re down to a backpack a piece? And my 7 year old laptop. I applied for a few jobs off of Craiglist. Once I got spooked by a vice cop who thought I was prostituting. I actually ONLY showed up for what I thought was a job interiew. I lived with one man who wanted more than just a roommate after 3 days. One other who had rats the size of small kitten in the house and it was littered with garbage all over. One that had roaches everywhere and all he wanted was sex as well. I have run out of options. I’ve tried everything I could to generate even the smallest amount of cash. My son is homeschooled because he does not want to be teased at 15 for being homeless. All he has to war is his sandals anyway. No tennis shoes. I cut his hair myself because we couldn’t afford to take him to a barber.
I cry everyday. Iworry every day. I can’t eat without getting sick. I’ve begged for a job. Pleaded for help. My own family of which I DID help that started all of this? Won’t help! So I don’t know what to do. I have nothing to wear for a job interview. Jeans and flip flops? I don’t know what else to do when even the social service agencies and the churches won’t help.
Is there anything? A light at the end of the tunnel? Can I make it stop hurting? I’d really love to have a life again?