The poverty line

Life is rough but I'm in full belief that if you start off on the right foot and keep trying to advance, you will end up somewhere worth being.

I'm 24 years old and I'm practically living paycheck to paycheck because I have student loans and a car loan.  All of the rest of my money goes to my "cost of living."  But I save the tiny tiny bit I can, because that will help me get rid of my loans faster.

But this isn't about my loans.  It's about my career.

I was bitching to my friend about how I'm starting off at the bottom of the barrel.  However, I'm starting off at the bottom of the barrel in a career that I know will bring me great ease later in life.  I quit my current job because there was no potential for growth.  If I would have stayed there, I would have been limiting myself.  I'd probably only be making $35k a year ten years from now. I'm very intelligent and I know that I deserve much more than $35k a year.

I mean, sometimes you gotta be thankful for what you have.. but you also have to set your standards high.  I know what I"m worth.

I also know that I'm going to be successful in life because I'm trying really hard to be successful in life.  Most of my friends sit idle and watch the days go by, just taking life as it comes.  I'm not like that; I'm quite a fighter. I've always been a fighter. I have two different kinds of friends and I find myself in the middle:

Friends like my one friend who works at a grocery store and is content with making $21k a year.
And friends like Kevin and Nick who make at least $125k a year.

I find myself in a place where I can go either way.  I can have no plan to change or I can keep fighting.  I mean, I'll never make $125k a year, but my goal is to be making much more than I'm making right now.  And if that means I have to go out of my comfort zone and change companies, so be it.  If  I need to quit my job again a year from now because the potential for growth isn't good there either, then I will do that.  And if it leads to another salary war, great!  Because salary wars usually end in more money.  The job I quit a week ago was trying so hard to keep me.  I swear they would have bought me a unicorn if I would have asked for one.

But a unicorn doesn't change the fact that I'd only be making $35k a year ten years from now.  Unless they gave me a new unicorn every year and I could sell the unicorn for at least $20k.

Both of my parents grew up below the poverty line. I think that is reason enough to keep plowing through life with this sort of ambition. You know, I've never failed at anything else before, so why would I fail at this?  I always get what I want.  Really.

Life depends on the choices that you make.  And some of them are hard but you gotta set your standards high.  If you choose to quit high school, you're fucking up your whole life.  If you choose to skip college, you're limiting yourself financially.  If you get your degree and you don't make it worthwhile, you might as well have skipped college.  If you find yourself in a relationship where the person works at McDonald's, then you can never complain about your financial situation with that person because you chose that person.

I want to make the right decisions in life.  I want to have a nice future.  I don't want to give up, ever.