I’m 55 with a college degree, working in retail to stay afloat. It’s been hard to get past the shame and find purpose.0

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• September 14, 2026

I’d been up since 4 a.m., sitting at my computer with an email ready to rescind my acceptance of a customer-service job at a large department store. It was August 2025, and I was supposed to start that morning. Shame had me hovering over the “send” button. I wondered how it had come to this.