Sorry if this is all over the place, I just need to get it out.
I (19f) am currently going to college in a small college town. I've had a couple jobs here and there but unfortunately none of them pay nearly enough, I get little to no family support so most of the weight of paying my tuition falls on me and loans.
I used to work at my school's chicfila but they only paid around 8.13/hr and due to my busy class schedule I only got about 120+$ on each paycheck and my phone bill alone was 79$. Over the summer I worked at a Popeyes but couldn't keep that up due to how far away it was. I finally started as an overnight server at IHOP and made good money but that job quickly became dangerous. I would get to and from that job on an electric scooter that I saved up for to get around town but going back to my dorm at 4 in the morning was becoming really dangerous especially since this town has had two shootings this year. Plus people have physically assaulted the servers at my job and yelled in our faces and I feel like it would only be a matter of time before someone tries to lay their hands on me and I don't want to put myself in that situation
Being in this town makes it feel like everything is stacked against me. I'm trying not to be super negative about it but it's getting kind of hard. I don't have a car or even know how to drive due to certain family issues that kept me from learning so I can't go to the next town over and am limited to finding jobs in this small town. I want to learn but have no one to teach me and there are no driving centers in this town and even if there was I don't have anyone who would be able to take me and I don't have the money to Uber back and forth. I have two friends that are happy to drive me places when it's urgent but they both have full time jobs in the next town over and go to classes throughout the week so I can't always rely on them.
I have applied damn near everywhere. Any store you name it I've probably applied there. Marshalls, Ross, target, Krogers, I even applied to 21 separate positions at Walmart and got rejected from every. Single. One. It starts to weigh on your brain when the only emails you get back are rejections if you even get an email back in the first place. I've even put in an application with workforce solutions and had meetings with people trying to help me find a job and not even that is working. It's just depressing at this point. If I don't find a job soon I don't know what I'm going to do.