Reality's Dreams

Hallucinations
Are when reality meets
Fictional events

Imagination
Can be real if you turn it
To living actions

Dreams as real as stars
Exist because thoughts manifest
Into reality

Chasing Paper: A Millennial's Take on the Gig Economy

I haven't driven for rideshare (or a delivery service) in a couple months and have taken a recent break from working to reflect on life and get back into a career track again. Having lived on my own for awhile without a job, in order to maintain independence, I had to do something. But what did I do? How did I survive without having a scheduled job for 2.5 years?

When I first lost my job, I had some money left in my savings account, as well as some remaining checks to receive from the job. While that was all dwindling away, my friends told me I could make a living driving for Uber and Lyft as my new fulltime job. I thought I was doing fine, but I was burning a hole through my wallet and then some. My car needed a lot of repairs and gas cost a pretty penny. Having to full up several times a week and taking away the value from my car, I wasn't aware how much I was spending. After awhile of driving, I also wasn't taking care of myself because I felt the urge to chase paper. By that I mean I was driving myself to exhaustion and driving for unsafe amounts of time to make as much money as possible. I also gained the 60 pounds back I worked so hard to lose. I felt like I was fishing for scraps and not getting anywhere. Rideshare was winning and I was losing...

Eventually, I decided I needed to cut back on driving. The amount of money I lost exceeded the amount I made and I needed to find other ways to make money while excessively job hunting. Job hunting sadly had no use. I would find some jobs I'd take in any respect such as data entry, dog walking, and verifying background checks. Sadly, I took all of those jobs for the money and not for the passion and lost them all pretty quickly. In the interim of many failed jobs, I would take a bunch of day jobs from people I knew (luckily I know a lot of people), doing crazy things such as working a street fair at a friend's Mexican food and ice cream stand, cleaning houses, working merch tables for music shows, hanging posters, delivery driving, helping people move, and much more. I also sold a bunch of my belongings for some spare rent money. Sometimes, a few people, including my parents, would throw me some financial bones, but not really; I did not depend on help from others. It soon hit a point where I needed to drive to a minimum...

Down the road towards the end of my pure gig shindig, I "did not want to drive no more" and needed to find something else to do. While continuing to job hunt and do odd/day jobs, I eventually discovered the world of gig apps. A gig app is a website that runs on a mobile platform (application) where you can look up and pick up day (or multi day) gigs by clicking a button. Some of these apps are Shiftgig, Jobble, and Wonolo. There are also companies (staffing firms) that host day gigs such as Arete. For awhile I was able to survive solely on odd jobs and gigs, but it is quite the unstable and not necessarily sustainable life. I was in a lot of debt, I needed help (I eventually sought help from a social services place) because I was barely getting by, and I was "making too much to receive government assistance". I also couldn't afford insurance or to pay my student loans back (they're in deferment). It was super lame. I'd get thrown a few financial bones here and there, but not really. I'm sure people were sick and tired of hearing about me struggling for so long.

By the end of this stint, I was worn out, unhappy I had no stability, I gained a bunch of weight, I wasn't taking care of myself, and I eventually hit a dead end when the apartment I had got bedbugs. I completed a few endeavors in my field of choice, but most tasks I did were in the $11-15 an hour range, which isn't a ton of money. I eventually had to move back home, but could have continued to make it on my own had it not been for that. My rent was also extremely inexpensive.

Would I recommend this life to other people? Not really unless you were an entrepreneur or did higher paying gigs that didn't send you into debt... But I survived and that's all that matters!

The Nest

I don't need a parent...

The ones who constantly narrate that I need to finish my taxes and not stay up all night instead of asking how my trip to the arcade with my friends was or talking about the state of the world...

You treat me like how a mother bird feeds worms to her young and not let me fly away when the time comes...

I may have had to return to your nest because mine was filled with the plague, but I don't want you to put that or "being my parents" on a pedestal. I didn't choose you like Ash chose Pikachu.

You always look at the sky and see it as grey and look at the glass as half empty, but at least you taught me resilience and fortitude.

I've been hiding behind my lingo wall for so long, but what I want to tell you is that sometimes you need to let the law of polarity run its course, let me land when I want to land, and let me use a few continues as I continue to advance my life!

I am doing my best to finish the race, but at least I'm still running!

Alternative Legal Ways to Make Side Cash

Freelance gigs
Using Freelance Gig websites such as Fiver and Freelancer
Paid writing assignments
Selling old crap
Vipkid slash teaching English to people in foreign countries
Shiftgig
Gig companies to do labor, concessions, food prep stuff, etc. at places such as arete
Jobble
Blogging
YouTube
Making websites
Paid performances
Using your referral codes to have other people sign up for apps such as Square Cash
Serving on weekends
Jobspotter
Surveys
Flipping thrift store or garage sale buys
Selling stuff for commission where you may have to make a small investment first
Plasma
Selling clothes at Plato's Closet or other similar places
Sweatcoin
Brand Ambassador gigs
Wonolo
Submitting to paid recipe or writing contests

Struggle Bus

The struggle is real.
I usually emphasize the desire to thrive,
But now I yearn for the drive to survive.

Fight or flight mode hath been engaged,
As I try not to become enraged.
The only thing keeping me alive is getting high,
But now I understand what being poor feels like; I empathize.

I'm rich in ideas, connections, and will, but lack the currency;
I must get it with utmost urgency...

So this is what being an animal feels like.
The only person you can count on is yourself.
I may be surrounded by a pack,
But no one else has got my back;
The only way to win the battle is to win alone.
It is time to adventure some more into the great unknown!
All while living on a prayer!