I am extremely fortunate to be well-educated and blessed with many important skills. For me, making ends meet is as easy as submitting an electronic resume and sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. Sometimes, I don’t even have to do anything in that cubicle!
But what really sparked my curiosity about making ends meet are the people I see doing odd jobs to make a buck. For example, today while walking Kaylie, I saw a group of people “canning”, or in other words, collecting cans. I have seen them around before. They always look the same, on their bike with big garbage bags of cans hanging off the side. It really made me wonder what kind of money they make collecting cans for them to continue doing the work of digging through people’s garbage. It’s even more amazing that these people are healthy white-Americans male who can speak perfect English.
Speaking of English, I also occasionally see Hispanic women and men sitting on the curb side selling fruits. It does not seem like anyone actually buys anything from these people, yet every spring through summer, they are there manning their road-side grocery. Why? I ask myself. Could the business of selling fruits really be that lucrative? It is worth sitting countless hours in the sun and risk being arrested? Does anyone actually buy the product? What happens with the products you can’t sell? Does it get thrown away, or do you have to eat them yourself? I guess, these people don’t really need answers, nor do they have them. I think for them, they have to do whatever they can to make ends meet. I don’t think they have a choice.
Ok, now speaking choices, when was the last time you had to make a choice in front of an ice-cream truck? You probably haven’t done that in a while right? Right. But you know what? I occasionally still here the whimsical music of an ice-cream truck barreling down the neighborhood streets. Honestly, how much money can you make selling ice-cream? It is even worth the gas you put in to drive the truck in the first place? What about the cost of refrigeration? It makes no sense. Why would you do something that has little to no return, not including the horrible chance of taking a loss? I guess I can chalk this up to the same idea that maybe these people don’t have a choice. Maybe they are not as fortunate as me, so they need to do whatever it takes to make that dollar.
Thinking about this makes me really really really glad that I am so so so so fortunate. I thank God that he blessed me with an opportunity to be educated. I pray that I will not let my blessings go to waste. What about you? What do you think? Do you do anything impractical on the side to make money?