Friends ARE Family

There's nothing like hearing from an old friend in a time of need to make you feel appreciated and loved. The fact that she choose me to write to, even though we haven't spoken in months, made me feel honored to be her friend. It also reminded me how important friends are. Friends may not be family by blood but they are family by choice.

They say you can't choose your family and that is certainly true. If you could choose your family (or your partner's family) would you really, honestly choose them? Even if you are family, what does that mean? I have family members I've never met. Some of them I haven't seen in twenty years. Ask me their phone number or address and I couldn't tell you. And to be honest, they have no interest in me either. Is this the definition of family?

But friends you can choose and they choose you. You can choose if you want to stay in contact or not. There is no obligation to attend this or that. A friendship is a much more casual relationship. Some days if I had to choose between spending time with a friend or a family member, many times I would choose a friend.

Being an only child has certainly influenced my friend over family belief system. I obviously have no brothers or sisters. I'll never have nieces or nephews on my side of the family. My grandparents are gone and my older aunts and uncles are slowly dying. Once my parents are gone, I'll have very little family. Friends are my new family. They're all I have left.

I treasure my friends and hope they'll be there for me for the long haul. The door is always open for family but I'm not going to chase you down to have a relationship with you. If you want to find me you know where I am. I guess being family doesn't mean much to some people. People get married and have kids and a far away family member gets forgotten. I get it - you're busy. When family lets you down, a friend is there to pick up the pieces. That's what friends are for, right? Who says family has to be blood related? Family is what you make it to be, it's the people that stick around. It's the people you can count on when you need them the most and if that's not the definition of family then I don't know what is.

Jumping Through Medical Hoops

When did medicine become more about paperwork and less about helping people? It's funny all the people you have to go through to see a doctor. Receptionists, office managers, nurses, and physicians assistants. All this to see a doctor who will probably see you for five minutes before walking out the door.

No matter what the issue, big or small, I always feel like a number. A stepping stone to the next appointment waiting down the hall. Look, I wouldn't be here if I didn't need to be. I'm here for help, so please help me instead of transferring my call or passing me along to the next person.

Nothing is more emotional than trying to have a child. These tests I have to take are not just routine, they will determine the rest of my life. This is important to me and I take it very seriously. Sometimes I think I take it more seriously than the person providing the test. When you want something so much, you'll do anything to get it, even if that means yelling at a know-it-all nurse once in a while.

Things get even more complicated the more people that are involved and if two separate doctor's offices are involved, forget it, something will fall between the cracks. You have to be your own advocate. Keep pushing until you get the results you want. After all, this is about you, isn't it? The patient, remember? But then again without paperwork and insurance, you're nothing. Patients have been reduced to numbers and files and insurance cards. You do not have a soul, just a body.

I get that doctors and nurses do and see this kind of stuff everyday, but I do not. I don't know what I'm doing and I 've never done this before so how can you expect me to make decisions in one minute or over the phone that will affect the rest of my life.

After spending a day dealing with doctors and nurses and tests, I walk away completely overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted. The sad part is I haven't even gotten the test results yet, I'm still jumping through the hoops. 

The Broke American

I am so tired of being broke. Every Christmas, every vacation, I never have any money. I know most of it is my fault. I have way too much credit card debt at a high interest rate. But as much as I save, scrimp, use coupons, buy generic, buy things on sale, I never have enough money left over. Where does it all go?

Is it the economy or just my bad money saving habits? Everything is going up except incomes. My husband didn't get a scheduled raise this year, is forced to take furlough days, and is paying more for health insurance. How can we save when everything is going up? Does the whole country have to go broke to bring prices down? Maybe we should all go into foreclosure and claim bankruptcy and start from scratch.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to live an exorbitant lifestyle. I just want enough to be comfortable, is that too much to ask? I want the American dream just like everybody else. I'm starting to think it really is a dream, a dream we all blindly chase until at some point in our lives you give up and realize it's not coming true.

I'm tired of playing the game. I got a college education because I was told I would be better off, but I'm not. I got a job, several jobs, showed up on time, did my job to the best of my ability, and in the end all I got was a pat on the back. I'm playing the game and I'm losing-big time.

It seems at this point in my life I will never catch up. I'm in my mid-thirties, have more debt than savings, and very little in retirement. When I was young I was very naive. Of course when you're young (late teens to mid-twenties young) you're fed a bunch of crap about life. You may no longer believe in Santa or the Easter bunny, but now you're suppose to believe in the power of a good education will lead to a high paying career (notice I said career, not job-big difference), you'll get married, buy a house, and have beautiful, smart children. If you believe in that crap, then you might as well still believe in Santa and the Easter bunny. Good luck, young people, because it doesn't always happen that way.

When I was young, I had a dream to take care of my parents and give them all the things they sacrificed for me. Now, every year, I look forward to the check they still send me at Christmas. I also naively believed that my income would steadily rise as I got older. Wrong-not only hasn't that happened  but my income has slowly decreased over the years while my credit card debt has increased (along with the interest and minimum payments).

I know life's not easy and life's not fair but I'm at the point of giving up. Why play the game when the odds are stacked up against you? I've seriously thought about defaulting on my credit cards. Sure, I can afford the minimum payments, but why keep paying it? At this rate, it will take me the next twenty years to pay it off and then maybe I'll get to retire, but only if social security is still available. At the end of the day, after the bills are paid, gas is in the car, food on the table, I'll have nothing left to give and sadly America neither will you. 

Don't Be Dependent On a Man

Ladies, don't be dependant on a man. Don't ever lose your independence. Once you lose it, you will slowly lose yourself.

I moved to a new state where I didn't know anybody. I quit working and became a housewife. Mistake one and two. I have no friends locally. My job skills are eroding. I have more debt than savings. If my husband left me today, I would have nothing.

I gave up my independence to be a housewife, but was it worth it? I was promised to be taken care of, but for how long? I wake up every day waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me. I can quickly go from wife to homeless and unemployed in a minute.

Being married doesn't mean you have to lose yourself. Marriage should be about blending two lives into one, not taking one away. If you become dependant on a man, you are guaranteed nothing. The minute he walks, you lose.

Some women may like being dependant on a man. That's great if you're married to a millionaire, but if you're middle class, living paycheck to paycheck, being dependant on a man is a different story. A scary story.

If you are ever dependant on a man for whatever reason, never lose your friends and always keep up your skills. No man is worth losing that. By becoming dependant on someone else, you isolate yourself from the outside world and that world can become a boring and lonely place. The longer you are isolated, the harder it is to break free. I know when I go back to work my skills will be behind and I will have to start at the bottom and work my way up. In some ways I regret becoming a housewife. Some people think I'm lucky, but at what cost?

Being dependant on someone is not worth it. You lose more than you gain. More importantly, you lose yourself. The only person you should be dependant on is you. At least when you let yourself down you have no one to blame but yourself. The best part is you can pull yourself back up. You have your own back and that's the way it should be.

Isn't that how little girls are raised? To be independent. Then how come so many of us are concerned about what the guy does for a living and how much he makes? Are we only independent until marriage? After marriage are we dependant on our husbands and our paychecks become shopping money?

My income depends on someone else. That's a lot of pressure to support someone else. Sometimes I feel guilty by not contributing financially. I miss getting a paycheck that was all my own. I miss having an identity that wasn't tied to someone else's existence.

I took a gamble and became a housewife. I thought I'd won but in the end I'll probably lose. I don't blame my husband, I made this choice. I am too far down this road to turn back, but if I had to do it all over again I would definitely choose me over him.