When I Lost My Job And Became A Poke-Crack Dealer // Stories of a Side Hustle

In 2011, I was laid off of my job managing a care home in the California Central Valley. It was a hell of a place, that care home. On my first day on the job, a very large (400 lb plus) resident who stood about 5’9” destroyed the entire dining room, throwing chairs through the house, breaking windows, and eventually ending up on the wrong end of a taser gun after we finally gave up trying to redirect him (after four hours swinging to the symphony of destruction) and called the Police.

That shot with the taser, though, stands out still as a reason to avoid calling the police. An ambulance came after and while I can’t be certain, I think they had to restart his heart.

Fears of calling the police aside, what stands out to me about that time in my life, other than the stupidity of me continuing with the job for three more years after that monstrous first day, is the degree to which my life was disrupted after losing that job. It was a big blow. Sure, the economy was in the toilets and I didn’t have seniority, but I needed the salary, which I had worked up to $34,000 as a manager of the home (not much but the most I had ever made up to that time), to continue payments on the house my wife and I bought and to clothe and diaper an ever-crapping ball of flesh we named Elijah, who turned one the first day of my layoff.

During the next two years, I lived by selling thing on eBay and went back to school for an M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition (teaching writing). One of the things I sold regularly was Pokemon Gameboy games with replaced batteries. I would buy games on eBay that wouldn’t save, replace the battery, and resell the units for about $20.00 profit each. I sold them on Craigslist, too, driving to random places in the middle of the night to deliver Pokemon (Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, and Gold) in random parking lots like some Pokemon crack dealer.

I don’t miss that time, but looking back, knowing that I have the ingenuity to hustle a few dollars even when shit hits the fan is encouraging. Should I end up in a similar situation, it would likely hurt more (my salary has increased since obtaining the M.A.), but ultimately I trust that I would be able to make it through any financial hardship that comes my way.

Image Source: Images are my own, Giph was created at Giphy.com