During the month of January, I will be posting (tentatively) one post every day as part of the #bloganuary challenge
Today’s Prompt: What is the most memorable gift you have received?

A long time ago, I was working for a small company in Toronto as their web manager. The company went through some issues and had to lay off 2/3 of its employees, myself included. So I was receiving EI for a bit. The thing is, I had bought, before all that, flight tickets to visit my family in Brazil. The situation there was not the best either. Both my parents had also lost their jobs and my dad had been diagnosed with cancer. I really wanted to go see them, but if I left the country I would not receive the insurance money for the time I was out of the country, which is fair, since the idea is to help you while you are focusing on your job search. But without the money from the insurance, I was not able to pay the rent. So I couldn’t go. And I was gonna lose the money I had paid for the flight ticket.

Then, a bunch of my friends put together the money to pay my rent so I could go see my parents and be able to pay the rent even tho I would not receive the EI money for that period.

It was a rough time. Things got better after a while, my parents got another job (and after a while were able to retire) I got a new job, my dad had surgery and everything went well and we are all here celebrating the good things in life.

So, if you ask me, what was the best gift I have ever received I would say friendship. All my friends.