The Pursuit of Happyness

I pay-per-viewed Happyness over the weekend and found it very difficult to watch. Each time Chris was wondering where the next dollar was coming from and how he was going to care for his son, I was reminded of the very difficult years in Washington with Tyler.

I don't know if I've ever told this story here. I had been with IBM for eight years, had finished two years of law school, and had been living with John for a year. I was following the real estate track in school with two years left to complete, and hoping to become a real estate attorney upon graduation and passing of the bar. Several of the real estate classes I wanted to take were only offered during the day, and I was going to school at night. After many discussions regarding this dilemma, John suggested I resign from IBM and let him take care of the all the finances while I focus on school. This would enable me to take some daytime classes. So after thinking and talking and considering, I resigned from IBM at the end of August 1988. I went from a salary of about $45,000 to a salary of $0. A few weeks later I got a part-time job as an editor for a crazymanlawyerauthorpublisher in Arlington so that I had a small income. About a month later Tyler told me he wanted to leave his dad and come live with me. At the beginning of January I drove to Plano to get Tyler and brought him and all his stuff, crammed into my Honda Civic Wagon, through driving rain back to D.C. Six weeks later—on Valentine's Day, if memory serves me correctly—John told me he "could not deny [his] love for Elizabeth and wanted to be with her." We stayed together a couple more months while I searched for housing and means to supplement my income. And from that point forward, I worked a full-time and two part-time jobs while finishing law school, just to provide for Tyler and myself.

Not a day went by when I wasn't worried about money, about bills, about the future. It would grip me like a straitjacket, the fear of not being able to make ends meet, of having to deny Tyler something that he needed in his education and his life.

Watching "The Pursuit of Happyness," I could feel that panic again.

When I look at my current life, my two houses and four mortgages, any angst I feel now is nothing compared to where we were then.

And may I never have to experience that again!