Maria and Sam met in 1978, both having jobs at a car factory. Sam was working on an assembly line and Maria was doing her internship as an accountant. It wasn’t hard to earn a living for themselves, but when Maria got pregnant with twins, they both realized their salaries weren’t enough. They had to earn more to buy a small house in the suburbs. Sam started working overtime, and when Mary had completed her internship, she stayed at home. The twins were born in 1981. For the first year, while Mary was on maternity leave, Sam didn’t get to spend much time with his family, as he worked long hour shifts. However, he was a hard and reliable employee; he always used to clock in on time and never take any time off,  so he soon got promoted to a higher position.

When the twins were three, they started kindergarten programme, which left Mary with time to look for a new job. She had applied to many vacancies, but unfortunately, she realized that she was underqualified for most of them. Being unemployed, she had a lot of extra time on her hands, so she decided to take a college course in Economics.

Meanwhile, Sam’s company was coping with financial difficulties and many workers were made redundant. One day his employer invited him to have a talk about his future career. He briefly explained the company’s position and asked Sam to accept a pay cut. However, after he had thought the situation through, he decided to take a risk and resign himself.

While Sam was doing odd jobs, still managing to provide for his family, Maria graduated from college in 1990. Despite not having much work experience, she soon got a job at the local primary school that her children attended. The job being part-time, she earned a decent salary and she got to spend enough time with her children.

When the twins enrolled at secondary school, Sam had already had so many customers that he decided to start his own business. His wife joined him shortly afterwards, doing the accounting.

The children did well at school; they never played truant and they passed all their exams. Having graduated from secondary school, Lucy enrolled at university. She was an excellent student and got her Law degree in 2006. She has had a permanent job in a small law firm ever since. Brandon studied Mechanical Engineering, however he wasn’t serious enough about it. He skipped a lot of classes, failed his end-of-term exams and finally dropped out of university. Luckily, his parents have secured him a position in their family business, so he is currently employed there. Brandon hasn’t given up on his future yet, he is ready to try doing various temporary jobs and he hopes to find something he’s successful in. He believes that a university degree alone doesn’t guarantee a good job today.