There’s a long story here, but I’ll spare you the details. I spent a decade homeless, unable to get welfare because I didn’t have a street address, and had no luck getting a regular job. Nobody cares that you’ve played on peoples’ records or had your voice all over the airwaves. All they see on your applications is that you haven’t held a long-term job with any company, ever, and your applications go into the circular file. A lot of people, like those closest to me, saw it as my being lazy, with no room for explanation, even if it wasn’t truly the case. I wanted to be a musician, dammit, and by the time I had conceded defeat, I had no track record to fall back on. I have been about as low as a person can go, without having the burden of addiction to compound the problems.
Then, completely out of the blue, one of my hobbies provided me with a way out. I had a mail-order business, and a relationship developed between me and a customer. I ended up emigrating to the US to be with her. We got married in 1998. I put myself in a situation where I simply could not fail, because the only other option was to go back to more of the same. That is not going to happen.
Now, I have a State job doing the other thing I know best. I got promoted just before Xmas to salaried, with benefits and pension. I live in a pretty nice house in the suburbs, which the landlord is going to sell to us privately, later this year. I have job security, a great marriage, toys and equipment, and we have the money to indulge ourselves in our favorite hobbies and pastimes. That’s what motivates me not to be lazy, or fail. I’ve lived on both sides of the fence, and this is the side where I’m staying.
It was the change of locale that helped; America let me in. I’m grateful to America for letting me in, and allowing me to start from scratch to work to get what I have today. I can’t do anything to jeopardize my situation. I can’t let my wife down, and I can’t let myself down. Not that it’s a struggle, mind you. Everything is going as well as could possibly be expected, maybe better. I just needed an opportunity. When it came, I grabbed onto it for all I was worth. It’s paying off, big time.