Once in a Lifetime

We were a single-income family, so when my mother was offered a good-paying job with a construction company across the state, we packed up our things and moved. My mother’s new position allowed her to buy a plot of land and build a house in rural mid-Michigan. From my perspective, at the age of 5, things were good. However, things are rarely permanent and as any millennial will tell you, once-in-a-lifetime events happen all too frequently.

During the 2001 recession, my mother was laid off and found herself trying to support a family with only her unemployment benefits. I was only 9 or 10, but I remember the changes in our household. Cutbacks were made, my parents argued more and there was this general stress looming over the home. As her unemployment was running out, she wasn’t able to find a job that paid as well as her previous one. She was eventually forced to accept a position that paid substantially less. This meant the cutbacks never really ended. However, more once in a lifetime events were to come.

Leading up to the 2008 recession, my mother’s new employer was not exactly in the best financial position. They were already understaffed and started cutting pay. When the recession hit in full force, my mother once again found herself unemployed with a family to support. Just like last time, she wasn’t able to find a position that offered as much as her previous one before unemployment ran out. It was now 2009, and she found herself making just $10 an hour. Less than she earned working a summer job at the Keebler factory in the early 1980s while in college. She had done everything right. She had a college degree, worked hard, rarely took a sick day let alone any other time off; yet she found herself making less than she ever had with a family of four to support.

I grew up frustrated with an economy that never seemed to work for my family. This frustration only grew as I left my small rural community. I left home and met more and more people and I heard my family’s story mirrored in one way or another time and time again. Then, in 2011, Michigan made cuts to its unemployment insurance and various other changes to our labor laws. I asked myself, “Why is this happening?” I decided around this time I wanted a career where I could help make life easier for working-class families.

In the wake of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, things are changing and people are reevaluating many aspects of their lives. Work interruptions and shutdowns gave some people room to think and rest. I was one of these people and it allowed me to go back and get my master’s degree in social work with a concentration in public policy and finally build a career where I could improve the lives of Michigan families.

Today, I feel fortunate. I have come a long way from that frustrated kid who felt powerless. I have now been given what feels like another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—I have the great pleasure of working as the League’s new Economic Security Policy Analyst! I am excited to have the opportunity to advocate for Michigan families and for policy that provides them financial peace of mind during hardship. Such as reexamining our unemployment insurance system and cash assistance to families in need. I’m ready. Let’s get to work.