Bootstraps

At work, I often see people on the edges of society-- homeless, alcoholic, drug addicted, mentally ill, you get the idea. they frequently smell bad, look odd, act strange; these are people you'd ordinarily avoid. Sometimes I wonder, though: what if you woke up one morning as one of them? I mean that literally-- what if you woke up and found you had somehow changed places with one of them?

Now think about this: how long would it take you to get back to where you are right now? I mean all the way from "step 1: take a shower" to "step 10, 978: finish college, get job"? I don't know why I do this, but it's like a mental exercise. As far as these people have fallen, is it possible to climb back? Sometimes I really get into this, like "ok, so I need to get clean, I can go to the Salvation Army, then I need to find a job.......day labor? MacDonald's? Can I eventually get an apartment? Can I prove I finished high school or do I need to start working on a GED?

I figure it would take about fifteen years to go from random unfortunate homeless person to college grad. I know, I know: I need to get a life.