I wouldn't say I was rich, I was comfortable, nice apartment in the city, all the toys a guy could want, eating in restaurants every night. I worked with children with disabilities, severe disabilities, mostly Cerebral Palsy. I worked with one child in particular who had Angelman Syndrome and Epilepsy, this child changed my life, made me feel like I was important, gave my life more meaning than I had ever felt before or ever believed was possible, I was working on creating a home for severely disabled children, I had the connections, the clients and spent all my free time working on my business proposal. One day my clients family told me they were moving to a rural area and I just could not let go. My perfect little angel would be leaving and I was crushed. I had worked 90+ hours a week with this child, I had been there for seven years. I just couldn't let go so I made a life altering decision. Knowing my work was not done I decided to follow the family to the middle of nowhere. It was a massive reduction on pay, but I was still happy, still spending every waking moment working with and caring for this child and I had a nice nest-egg to prop myself up with.

Then it all fell out from under me, the boy was going to be moved to a full time care facility. I was lost, I spent the next year just sort of kicking around the small village I found myself living in. I did odd jobs, home improvement stuff. Mowing lawns, painting houses, laying carpets, just general handyman stuff for low pay. Eventually I took a job at a daycare. It was rewarding work, but the pay wasn't the best. There were not a lot of options in a small rural village.

Then, one morning I was shaving and I noticed a lump on my neck, I spent the next year working and seeing doctors and was eventually told I had cancer. Next came surgery, then radiation, I had to go to a hostel because the nearest city with a cancer clinic was hours away. Cancer is expensive, and a year later I was in severe debt. Savings gone, credit cards maxed out. Eventually when I had recovered enough I took the first available job with a decent benefit package. Now I am a janitor in a rural school and I make enough to get by, I keep the bills paid but that's about it. Some weeks are good and I can eat Chicken, fish or Spaghetti and meatballs, some weeks are worse and I'm down to ramen or black beans and rice.