“The body is a sacred garment.” —Martha Graham

While working a part-time job at a country store, I enrolled at the University of Maine at Augusta (UMA), same as my sister. We would both become the first in our family to have a college degree.

Soon after I got my first ever job and enrolled in college, I got a second 36-hour a week job at a rehabilitation and long-term care facility. My sister, who at the time was a Certified Nursing Assistant and Med Tech at their affiliate location told me about the job. For three reasons, in descending order, this job was very, very important to me:

3. The job paid better than the job at the country store and offered more hours. That meant I would have more money.

2. I could work this new job that offered more hours at more pay on top of working my first job at the country store and still have the flexibility to take classes at UMA.

1. The job at the nursing facility offered health insurance. 

Obtaining health insurance was a very, very significant feat in my ultimate goal of not being poor. Having seen my parents both work well more than 40 hours a week most weeks, work most days, I was already conditioned to work as much as I needed to pay my bills. So the fact that the second job paid better than my first job was a bonus, but it wasn’t the thing.

To have health insurance, to me, meant that you had a job of a certain standing; health insurance symbolized accomplishment in life, that your job was stable; that you could take care of yourself, that you’d “made it” to some degree higher than if you didn’t have health insurance. You were further away from poor. Obtaining health insurance felt more important than attending college, than saving money, than learning how to drive. Having health insurance meant control. I was starting to take control over my own life. If something catastrophic were to happen, I would at least have some paid-into financial coverage to thwart financial ruin and complete disaster.

Having health insurance didn’t mean I could use the insurance, or if I did, it was for very rare occasions. To use the health insurance, I knew, would cost extra, and I by no means had extra.

Having a job that offered health insurance meant that I could relax just a little within myself. It meant I could focus a little more of my attention on my damn blueprint and figure out what the rest of my design was intended to look like; what I and my life would look like to not be poor.