My Wonder Moon @mywondermoon - Tumblr Blog

“There were moments we had hope. At one point he took this trial drug that magically melted his cancer away. But despite the emotional swings, he only ended up living for sixteen months—which was exactly the initial prognosis. Our three kids are still in high school. Everything is uncertain right now. It’s like I’m twenty years old again but without the excitement. The only way I’ve been able to cope is by not stopping. I couldn’t control my husband’s death, but I can make sure my kids don’t suffer in any other part of their lives. We still get together with friends. We still plan things. I bought us expensive Broadway tickets on Father’s Day. And afterward we went to the horse track, which was his favorite thing to do. The homework is still getting done. College applications are getting filled out. So I don’t have time for a meltdown. People think I’m doing better. But honestly, life doesn’t seem good anymore. It’s all so unfair. Everything just comes to a screeching halt and you weren’t done yet. I wasn’t done having a husband. My kids weren’t done having a Dad. So nothing really excites me anymore. But I’ll still decorate for Christmas. And we’ll still go to Disney World in June. Because I never want the kids to think that they’re not enough. Not long after my husband’s death, my son saw me crying, and asked: ‘Aren’t we enough to make you happy?’ That broke my heart. I decided that I’m never going to let them feel that way again.”

humansofnewyork

“I’ve wanted to go into construction since high school. I used to help my dad out all the time. Everything in our house we built ourselves. But my teachers tried to steer me down a different path. They’d encourage me to ‘figure things out.’ They’d say: ‘Why don’t you do this?’ or ‘Why don’t you do that?’ But I chose construction because it’s what I like to do. I got my union card at eighteen. The pay isn’t bad. I get benefits. It feels good to be young and working every day. But I see all these advertisements on the subway, and they basically say: ‘If you want to be successful, you have to go to college.’ All my friends went to college. Some of them have liberal arts degrees that I didn’t even know existed. A couple more dropped out. The ones who graduated can’t find jobs and have a lot of student debt. But they still look at me like I’m on the wrong path. When I tell them I can help them get a job in construction, they always say the same thing: ‘Why would we want to do that?’”