This is a LONG story, but the gist is that a family member with access to my bank account drained all of my money from it. I was halfway through a master’s degree but I could no longer afford tuition, rent, food, anything. I went from working toward a specific career path for 6 years to what I felt was a blank slate. Shit was bleak.

I was also working the odd gig in the entertainment industry at the time, and had an agent. This will be relevant later.

I sold everything I owned and went to a cheaper part of the country where I had friends who could help. I couch surfed, stayed with friends-of-friends or randos from tinder (protip homeless ladies /s), stayed in a guy's van my friend was squatting in, etc. Eventually an ex rented a place for me to stay, but then flew from the other side of the globe to live there too and tried to get me to marry him. Shit was getting worse.

Instead, in a twist of fate that I would roll my eyes at as a lazy plot device if I were to witness it in a film, my agent offered to fly me to an event to meet other agents all over the world. I left the event with three new agents and plans to move to a major entertainment market a few weeks later. That was 2 years ago. My career has been consistent, I volunteer in my original field of study, and shit is good again.