Holders of our own Destiny, here we come!

Thursday marked the first official day of business here in the land of Shirley. Benjamin and Sara, land designers extraordinaire. With another job lined up in two weeks, and a couple bids in the wings, day by day we're making strides to (hopefully) ween ourselves off the financial help of our ever-generous parents, let me clarify - my parents and his wonderful mother and his mother only (oh, I have no strong feelings on this point) and back to the world of being able to pay our bills. Yay! Three cheers.

It's underrated the feeling of being able to tackle any financial obstacle that comes one's way. When lucrative jobs are few and far between, and you find yourself eating rice and beans for the 5th night in a row, just because there's nothing else in the cabinet, the meaning of a dollar is driven hard and fast into your mind, and even that penny on the ground is something to be valued and picked up. A penny saved is a penny earned and we need about a million of them to make it.

The hardest thing about times like this, and who's kidding, it's been going on for a year or so, is the flippant way other people in our lives have talked about money. Gambling it away at poker games, stating boldly the projects they're working on, or the vacations they're taking, the homes they're buying. I don't fault anyone for having more than enough to live, I fault them for flaunting it in the face of people who have cut back on everything, and yet still struggle to cover the costs of everyday life. The undeserving co-workers who get a promotion or a raise, the exorbitantly high cost of repair to a clunker car, the feeling of anger and hopelessness in a present situation. The taking of a step forward and one event pushing us back two steps. It's all part of a bigger picture, and that's the hope to hold on to. The lines aren't drawn, and until they are, things can still change for the better.