I am the 99%

OK so I know it has been ages since I have posted, and there is a perfectly good reason for that! You see, I had to grow up, I had to find a job, and I had to do other super time consuming things that took priority over writing blog posts that next to no one reads....

But I have felt compelled to begin writing again, why you may ask? Because I am part of the 99%.

I am sure many of you are familiar with the "Occupy Wall Street/ Boston" movement. When it first began, I know myself, like many others, walked past groups of protesters on our way to our daily 9 to 5 grind, thinking "Oh wow, it seems as though hempfest has come early this year..."

But here is the thing, I cannot participate in the Occupy movement. I cannot sit and hold signs. I cannot give up my day's wage to try and get my voice heard. I have to get on a train in to the city at 7 AM to work until I can get home at 7 PM and there is nothing I can do about it. But I want to be heard too.

This past summer I started a new job. This was after being semi- unemployed for 3 months, and before that, being under-employed at a failing organization that I needed to leave to preserve my sanity. So I started my new job, and while it was not ideal, and did not pay nearly enough for the amount of work I was doing, I didn't complain, because I saw so many of my peers either waiting tables to pay off their college loans, or not even lucky enough to have a job at all.

Well, last week, I was told I am essentially getting laid off.

So here I stand again, on the brink of unemployment, a year out of college, and part of the 99% that is getting royally screwed over by everyone else.

A year ago, I had just came back from working abroad for 8 months, preceded by an immersion course in Armenia, a stint on Capitol Hill, and a string of other positions that have consistently kept me employed since I was 15. I am a cum laude a top 100 ranked university (#69- giggle), adept at language acquisition (both French and some Turkish), and hell, I can argue the turkish-armenian negotiation, the arab-israeli conflict, and the irrelevance of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" with the best of them. When I came home from Turkey, I applied to every restaurants and retail shop in the area, just to get some interim work. Not one of them even called me back. Not one.

Meanwhile, I pay over $600 dollars a month for student loans, loans with interest rates that should be considered criminal. Interest rates that will keep me in debt for an additional 10 years or more longer than I should have to be in debt. Rates that I, a 23 year old-about to be unemployed- recent college grad have to pay to big businesses who bought my loans and now control my ability to get any credit financing, future loans or general well being.

I got great grades in high school, I got into a great college, I did everything I was supposed to do, and now myself and so many others are under employed, un-employed, or living paycheck to paycheck with our daily motivation exponentially decreasing. It sucks, I am pissed, and there is NOTHING I can do about it.

Capitalism and democracy has backfired on us. The mistakes of the preceding generation's big business have caused mile high unemployment rates, a depressing recession, and a daily fear that today will be your last day at work. So now, people like me across the country, have had to go to our last resort. We have to literally stand outside buildings hoping to be seen.

There are easy criticisms to make about this movement. Call them radical bleeding heart liberals. Call them lazy unemployed losers. Sure, there are some of them tucked in the corners of the sidewalks, but if you can't step back and see the current inequality in today's society between the corporations and individuals, the growing gap between the classes, than you are probably a 1 percenter.Talk to protesters and they all have a different story, they all focus on a different issue, and they all feel slighted by what's been going on in this country. Don't get me wrong, I love living in the US. I wouldn't trade my passport for anything. I have been in countries where people wouldn't even dream of demonstrating like this, or be able to achieve success without bribing the right officials. There is beauty in America. It just looks like a skanky whore right now.

Tuesday I have to go to work. Who knows, maybe it will be my last week there. Maybe they will have a change of heart, find additional funding, and decide they won't lay me off after all. This isn't about jumping on some hippie bandwagon protest, this is about all of us getting what we worked so hard for...justice and equality. And if you disagree with me, thats fine, because we live in a country of rights, freedoms, and hell... I probably don't like you anyways.