Journal 2 Scratch Beginnings

Journal Entry 2

The beginning of chapter seven starts with Adam and his experience at the Career Services Department at crisis ministries. It was surprising to the extent that the charity center went to learn about his past and things that can be done to help him. One assumption that we had coming into this book was that the homeless and poor alike had very little help in getting guidance to help put their life back on track with a job, healthcare, and other necessities. One question we have though is whether this is typical with all types of crisis centers run by non-profit organizations or is type of care and guidance specific to Crisis Ministries. That then leaves the question that if others aren’t giving these types of services, maybe there needs to be more information on how to help people and Crisis Ministries should outsource its basic system.
One significant part of the book is happens in seven when Phil Coleman gives his job hunting advice to Adam. He tells Adam that he needs to be more assertive when it comes to looking for jobs and talking to managers about positions. Phil is able to cut through some of the old notions of job hunting in which you put yourself out there and wait for a call back. Phil tells Adam that people are not going to go around looking to higher homeless people and therefore if Adam wants a job than he must give a large impression on the person who is going to higher him. This advice leads Adam to one of the most important moments in his journey to find the American dream, his first steady job.
The next momentous moment of the book is when Adam finally joins the work force at Fast Company. We felt this moment was important because it is the first step Adam had to take to becoming self sufficient and reaching his goals by the end of the year. This job finally gives him the opportunities that didn’t exist before to where he can finally save money and look forward to moving out of Crisis Ministries.
Optimism was an important point in the beginning of the book. Marco, one of Adams good friends from Crisis Ministries in the first few chapters was a leader of optimism about the future. Marco had planned his future out to go to school, get an apartment, and start his own business. Yet unfortunately in chapter seven, Marco tells Adam that because he failed to file a tax return that year, he wasn’t awarded financial aid for the first semester at the community college. For the first time Marco loses his confidence in the future and also loses his optimism because of this set back. Unfortunately we feel that this small set back may lead him to become either depressed or lose the drive he had before.
This lost in optimism also affects Adam in a direct way also. Adam from the beginning of his time at Crisis Ministries was looking for friends and people he could work with to help in get out of his homeless situation. Marco was one of those people who Adam was looking to relay on to make good decisions and possibly work to get an apartment together. This set back with Marco therefore may lead to a setback with Adam too. Now he may not have the same support he might have had if he had Marco to work with. This type of intertwined dependence on each other seems like it is extremely important to helping people make it through tough times, yet it also leads people to being vulnerable to others mistakes or failures.
Therefore our guess is that Adam will have to help Marco along the way more to help in get back on his feet. We still feel that Marco hasn’t lost all hope for his future and this setback will only be minor. We feel that Adam and Marco will continue to work together through this book and will eventually help each other out of the homeless shelter and onto a steady life path. Whether or not Marco will accomplish all his dreams in the time spend he wants is also unlikely therefore Adam will most likely have to give him dose of reality.