I’m definitely feeling middle aged today.

I fear that my generation- generation x – will be the last generation that is largely self sufficient.

I am frustrated to no end by the victim mentality that is so pervasive in today’s culture.

Let me set a couple of thing straight before I put both feet on the soapbox. I have chronic pain. I have diabetes, severe arthritis in my back, and asthma.

I had a very rough 20’s – abusive relationships, both mental and physical. I was attacked and got away when I was 19. I was date raped when I was 30.

I have a chronically ill child. I lived several years in abject poverty.

I have a lot of sob stories. But…I refuse to let them define me!

When people would rather work for months or years to get disability than work to get a trade or make a decent wage, I’m disgusted.

My mindset is life’s a bitch and then you die – make the best of what you’ve been given. Some of my hard times are due to my poor choices. I own that. Some of them were due to the evil of others. I escaped from them.

I grew up respecting my elders. I learned to serve by watching others serve.

I did not grow up expecting a handout!

To see people in their 20’s and 30’s expecting handouts when they are able bodied is distressing.

I know there are people that genuinely face amazing hardships. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about those who are ill because of their poor life choices, who continue to abuse their bodies with food or drugs or tobacco, then woe is them.

It’s not easy to be healthy in a world full of junk food and medicine – but the choice is yours.

I don’t understand anyone who chooses to be a victim.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get it together.

You don’t want to work? Too bad. You have to support yourself, and your family.

I cry for the coming generation, raised on the dole. With an expectation that government will pay for their lifestyle.

Not me. Not my kids. Not my family. Not because we are better, but because we choose not to be victims.

We overcome.