She was exceptionally miserable, but no one really knew. And the people who did have an inkling of a clue, weren’t particularly empathetic. They’d say stuff like:

• “Let it go.”
• “Focus on yourself.”
• “Don’t be ungrateful. Do you realize how lucky you are?”

At the time, she felt anything but lucky.

A month or so earlier, she’d been evicted from her apartment; forced to quit school; and massively failed at her first full-time job and the first startup she founded.

Ninety percent of everything she’d ever owned she left in that apartment because not very much fit into the banged-up Volkswagen Jetta she had back then, and no one would/could help her move at the time.

She was alone.

Her friends disappeared because they didn’t want to deal with the drama. And her parents sentenced her to the hell they felt she deserved at the time.

See the problem was that she couldn’t support herself, so she had to depend on her parents for basic needs, like food and shelter, which meant someone else had control over her life.

Contrary to popular belief, this girl wasn’t lazy or entitled or feeling sorry for herself, she was surviving – or at least trying to survive.