Saddened and Humbled by a Student

[ProudLib72]

I call her "Picnic" because she brings a monster sized backpack full of food with her to class and eats most (sometimes all) of that food at during class. I could be annoyed, but she is good student who has class until 9pm. The other day, she was telling me she was looking for another job. She has a full time job, but it does not pay enough. She works and takes a full load of classes. Who am I to question her eating during our class at 12:30pm? It's lunch time! Or maybe "picnic time".

Today Picnic came to class without any food. She said she only had $2 and wanted to know how much the cafeteria charged for fries. I asked her why she didn't just use a credit card. She didn't have one. Why didn't she have one? "They" wouldn't let her have one. This was beginning to get confusing for me. Why wouldn't "they" let her have one? Because she is DACA.

Uh oh! New revelation for me! Obviously this is a common problem because I did a quick Google search and found a lot of people asking about it. You can get a secured credit card if you put down some collateral. But, then again, Picnic doesn't make enough at her full time job, so that option is out.

Today, Picnic chewed gum and told me how "they" said that chewing gum will relieve hunger. It wasn't really working for her, though. That was seven hours ago, and as I write this she has another hour of classes to go. Before you ask, I would have given her some cash if I had any, but I rarely carry cash on me. Class was beginning, I have two classes back to back, and Picnic leaves in between (I never see her after the first class). Yes, I did think of how I could get some food for her.

I sincerely hope Picnic found something to eat. I'll have to ask her about it during our next class. And, you know, maybe I'll start carrying some cash with me! In the meantime, "they" had better get their act together because I'm tired of "them" picking on my students!