Instead, it became the luckiest $400 I ever lost.
Four hundred dollars was not a small amount of money to me.
It was nearly two weeks of groceries.
It could cover the electric bill and still leave enough to put something toward next semester’s tuition.
For people like the couple sitting in my section that Friday night, $400 might have been the price of a nice dinner.
For me, it was survival.
I was attending college in a neighboring state, close enough to visit home when I had money for the trip but far enough away that every family emergency felt impossible to manage. Justicesystem resources
I had been working as a waitress at a restaurant near campus for almost a year.
Most evenings were a balancing act between classes, assignments, late shifts, and sending whatever money I could spare back home.
