2026 Market Dates and We’ve Been Doing the Impossible
The people doing the most are often the ones least protected.
There’s a line from the movie Roman J. Israel, Esq. that has been echoing in my head:
“I’m tired of doing the impossible for the ungrateful.”
He meant the legal system.
I hear: capitalism, corporate “family” culture, the 9–5 machine, the gig economy, the “be grateful you have a job” era.
Because let’s be honest:
A lot of us have spent years doing the impossible for systems that never protected us… and then blaming ourselves when we’re not “successful enough.”
If you’re new here and this already hits something true in you, you can:
We’ve Been Doing the Impossible
We have done everything we were told would “pay off”:
Stayed late, gone above and beyond, held entire teams together
Survived layoffs, reorganizations, and hiring freezes
Adapted to AI, new tools, new platforms, new expectations
Carried emotional labor that was never in our job description
Smiled through fake “we’re a family” speeches
Tried to be strategic, grateful, resilient, available, flexible
We grew. We stretched. We evolved.
We did the impossible, repeatedly.
For Systems That Were Never Built to Protect Us
And what did the system give in return?
Cost-cutting.
Layoffs.
Micromanagement.
Wage stagnation.
“Do more with less.”
“Be a team player.”
“Times are tough.”
The people doing the most are often the ones least protected.
It’s not because you’re not good enough.
It’s because the game was never designed for your well-being.
But here’s the part that cuts the deepest:
At some point, we stopped just being exploited by external systems…
and started participating in our own punishment.
The Enemy Within: When the System Starts Wearing Your Face
There’s a point where the system no longer needs to actively control you.
Because you’ve internalized it.
You start hearing its voice in your own thoughts:
“I should be further along by now.”
“Other people my age are more successful.”
“I shouldn’t be this tired.”
“If I were really smart, I’d have figured this out already.”
“I shouldn’t need help.”
That’s the enemy within.
Not because you’re self-destructive.
But because you were trained to believe:
Your exhaustion = laziness
Your burnout = weakness
Your need for rest = a flaw
Your slowness = failure
Your boundaries = attitude
Your desire for more = ingratitude
This is how structural problems become personal shame.
It’s how capitalism maintains itself without even lifting a finger:
by turning the worker into both the engine and the enforcer.
The system doesn’t have to punish you.
You punish yourself.
And that’s where the enemy within shows up most loudly:
When you sincerely believe you are “behind”
for not thriving in a collapsing system.
The Past Is Just a Story We Tell Ourselves
There’s another line I keep coming back to, from the movie Her:
“The past is just a story we tell ourselves.”
And yet so much of our self-criticism and “not enough-ness” comes from a past we’ve never re-examined:
Old workplaces
Old bosses
Old performance reviews
Old expectations
Old relationships to work and worth
Old versions of ourselves we’ve already outgrown
We are still measuring ourselves with rulers we didn’t choose, built by people who never lived our lives.
If the past is a story, then:
We don’t erase it.
We re-interpret it.
We re-claim it.
We re-narrate it.
We stop using our past as evidence against our present potential.
We recognize: “Oh, I was surviving a system, not failing as a person.”
The enemy within weakens the moment you decide:
My past is not a sentence.
It’s context.
I get to decide what it means now.
The Collapse Is Here. But So Is Our Power. 🔥
We are not imagining this moment.
Capitalism is cracking in visible ways
Entire sectors are being rewritten by AI
Jobs are unstable, contracts end suddenly
Cash is being replaced by digital transactions
Wages are not matching the cost of living
Companies are cutting people before profits
And yet, within all of that, we still have to make very real, very immediate decisions:
How do I pay my bills?
Do I stay or leave my job?
Do I go all in on my business?
Do I pivot to something more “practical”?
How do I position myself in this job market?
What does “stability” even mean now?
This is why I created my Crisis Ranking System in a previous post — to help you identify what kind of crisis you’re actually in and what level of decision-making it calls for.
👉 Read: The Crisis Ranking System post
We can’t control the system.
We can control how clear we are, how grounded we are, and what the next step looks like.
Not the 10-year plan.
The next step.
Full Circle: The New Era of My Work
When I look back over the past few years of this business, here’s what’s true:
I experimented with a lot of ideas and angles
I thought I had to keep reinventing the offer
I thought I had to keep inventing new containers to “earn” legitimacy
I doubted myself every time something didn’t instantly sell
But when I zoom out, one pattern is very clear:
I want to always create real relief and clarity for others.
Whether through exploring and creating ways for nourishing our lifestyles and passions with income and work sovereignty.
And/or by creating physical nourishment through cacao, plant medicine, and embodiment practices.
Welcome to Eat Loco MetPark Saturdays🌱 2026
I’ll be selling my home-made drinkable cacao blends (cacao powder with spices) at
Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, VA (1400 S Eads St) from 9 am - 1 pm!
If you’re in the local DMV area, come find me and say hi (and pick up some nutritious cacao)
May 23rd
June 6th
July 11th and 18th
August 8th
If you’re in another state or country, no worries! I have a waitlist open so that once I’m set to ship/take online orders, I can do so 😍
I’m Raquel Sands. Daughter of Salvadoran immigrants. Cacao blender. Autonomy advocate.
Professional job hopper with 20 years inside corporate and government systems.
I’ve navigated 10+ jobs, 2 recessions, layoffs, getting fired, quitting without savings, and paying off $100K+ in debt.
Now planting seeds for a different way of living.
Now is your time.
Now is our time.
The mold has broken. The systems and machines made to profit and extract from us are in turmoil.
Nourish yourself.