This is a pretty solid piece. I absolutely hate being told to ‘be positive’ after having lost a really great job and not being able to get anything decent or lasting ever since.

I find it patronizing and humiliating when people trivialize my experience by telling me the embarassment and fear of not having a future after being worn down by stacks of rejected job applications is insignificant compared to having a terminal illness or being foreclosed; that ‘I should be grateful for being alive’.

My response to them is: Does the pain a patient feels from two broken legs suddenly disappear just because he’s aware of the burn victims in the same hospital who are suffering more? You get the impression that you’re being told to pretend to be happy in public for everyone else’s sake.

My solution is to isolate myself from everyone because I don’t want my shame to be treated as an imposition on the group happiness derived from constantly winning in life, or put up with anyone thinking less of me because they know someone who solved a bigger crisis better and faster.