I never thought I would write something like this and here I am…

Two years ago, I lost my corporate role after 25 years of showing up, performing, and delivering. I had worked for companies like Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and Expedia. I had titles, credentials, and a track record most people spend a career building.

Then, almost overnight, it was gone.

Since then, I have applied to over 3,000 jobs. Executive roles. Service roles. Everything in between. I have rewritten my resume more times than I can count, shown up to interviews, followed up, and started over again. 730 days of that. I have sold stuff on marketplace, taken odds and end jobs.

What kept me going?

Finishing what I started. I am now in my final semester of graduate school, completing a Masters in Yoga Therapy and Ayurvedic Medicine. While I’m searching for corporate work, I am also building a clinical yoga therapy practice, supporting people in healing their nervous systems, their grief, their bodies. Helping others find steady ground while quietly losing my own.

I have a yellow lab named City who has been my constant through all of it. She does not know about the job market. She just knows I show up every morning for belly rubs, walks, and a lot of dog hair.

Right now, my home is on the edge of foreclosure. My hardship assistance was denied. I am doing everything I can to either save it (by paying the arrears monies) or sell it before that happens, and the clock is real and the margin is thin. 

My truck is past due. My insurance lapsed. Two credit cards are maxed from two years of surviving without income. My day-to-day has become a careful calculation of what can wait and what simply cannot vs. what’s going to push my two year sobriety over the edge.

A friend told me to let people in. So I am letting you in as vulnerable and humiliating as this is for me.

Here is exactly where every dollar goes:

My immediate goal is $5,000:

• $2,500 brings my truck current and restores my insurance so I can get to work (teaching yoga at a gym) and keep my clients w/o the fear of it being repossessed while in the grocery store

• $2,500 covers debt on my two credit cards so I stop falling further behind

My full goal is $13,000:

• The remaining $8,000 pays off both credit card balances in full and gives me the breathing room to finish my degree, actually buy the books, step into my next chapter, and stop surviving month to month

That is it, nothing hidden. Just the real numbers of what it takes to get back to solid ground.

If this story moved you, if you have ever started over, especially at 50, ever felt invisible after giving everything, ever just needed someone to believe in you, I would be honored by your support. If you cannot give, sharing this costs nothing and means everything.

Direct support also welcome:

Venmo: @HussyGussy

CashApp: $RachelGussman

Thank you for reading this far. It took a lot for me to write it.

With love & light,

Rachel & City