Today in lit class we watched a pretty "enlightening" video with Morgan Spurock. He has this whole series call 30 days, inspired after doing Supersize Me. Basically in these series, he takes himself to live in a completely different environment for a month, like being in a jail cell for thirty days, being a straight bartender in a gay bar (? I donno o___o), or being a Christian in Muslim shoes (?). The one we saw today was working just at the minimum wage and trying to survive for a month. He 'suckered his fiancee' into doing that time's 30 days with him, and it was a pretty... it really reaches into the audience (I hope.. at least it did to my lit class).
Basically, he and his fiancee Alex left all their money money money and fairly high-standard living style and went to Columbus, Ohio (a place where many are among the poverty line) with an initial money of $325 to start off with. They found a REALLY sucky apartment, with strange electric features, and ANTS AND BEETLES yuck. Someone had just lived in that apartment two days before, and the rent was $350 a month, with a deposit of some amount, so obviously they had a negative amount of money.
After sleeping in sleeping bags for the first night, the next day they began the search for jobs. Morgan went to a "temp service" (I think that's what it was called), where basically people find jobs for you to do everyday just at the minimum wage (or pretty close around there). Alex found a job at a coffee shop, doing the job she first did as a 14 year old (haha). They needed to make around $900 in the month, and so they worked full time jobs everyday.
Of course, if they could just work with nothing else happening, they might have gone by pretty okay. However, there were health problems! Alex had a bladder infection and they had to go to the emergency room and then later a prescription drug to heal it, later totaling up to around $430. Morgan had a wrist injury from doing physical labor for very little money and went to the emergency room, also, later totaling up to $551 (shows how corrupt our american health care system is). Morgan originally lined up at free clinics, but spaces and time of doctors were limited, and he never got in, so his only choice was the ER.
Luckily in Columbus, there were many Charity centers, one of which was owned by a church were everything was free, from furniture to toys to food to clothing. One of the store managers said "we have a lot of stuff but we don't know how to share them" (something like that), which is pretty much like the american economy at the moment = ="... but then we'd go communist al;ksjdfklads I'm not going to go too far on that.
Morgan and Alex also voluntarily dealt with children one day, trying to find ways to entertain them, yet spending tons and tons of money (in terms of how much they had... like around $55.00 only). Morgan and Alex started having an argument, and Alex starts wondering how families so poor like them could possibly have stable relationships (I start wondering too).
In the end, Morgan and Alex and the audience really had a new perspective on those living below the poverty line, how hard-working they are with all their unfortunate circumstances, and it really tells us to appreciate the works of anyone trying to better the community and tells us to work hard, from the very beginning - school! Ah D:
So 加油 everybody! :D
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