In January, I will lose my apartment and move in with my fiancee's family. My own family has absolutely refused to help us, citing self help books and telling us "Its our journey", but my fiancee's family has been more than generous. College is simply too expensive for us to keep paying for the rent and all the bills, books, food, internet, and gas. We have both tried looking for jobs, with little to no results. At any rate, we are both in school for 8-10 hours a day. Not literally in class for that long, mind you, but there for that long. Our car, which we bought on craigslist, is a complete piece of fucking junk. We have nothing but endless problems with the piece of shit. It needs a new pilot bearing currently, which is a 200 dollar fix (money we don't have), so we have been taking the bus recently. It only comes every hour or so, so we stay at school from our first class to our last class every day.
In spite of all of this, I am grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to even go to college, grateful for my parents-in-law (future, of course) for caring about us enough to put a roof over our heads for an indefinite amount of time, something my parents didn't have the empathy or heart to do. I am grateful that I have my wonderful, fantastic, beautiful Ellie by my side, to make everything better and brighter. There is no way I could have ever survived being this financially destitute without her.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to live the social problems I am studying for my major. I want to teach sociology, and I don't think I could ever understand income inequality or poverty without first living it. See, understanding poverty takes empathy, and how will I ever become empathetic with the struggle without ever living it first.
I am grateful for the Great Orange Satan, too. This community takes care of its own. It puts a smile on my face, seeing us take care of one another, watching us live the values we espouse and extoll. It inspires me when someone is asked if they want a community quilt. Not if they want to buy a community quilt, but if they want one, no strings attached. Its humbling to be asked here on dailykos if you need money, and have people willing to send you a check overnight just to make sure you have food on the table the next day. You guys are the greatest set of people on the internet, hands down. And I mean that.
I have been a part of a lot of stupid internet websites over the years, but I never took them seriously. But you guys, I can actually call friends. I can actually call you guys peers. I can rely on you to help when the chips are down, and you can rely on me to help in turn, when you are having troubles. This place is like that. We lean on each other.
So I say this with all the sincerity in the world: don't ever change dailykos. No matter how cold and harsh the outside world becomes, don't ever change.