[SilasX]

She almost certainly had better financial options; she wasn't suffering severe disabilities. It's just that these options weren't the kind of thing that would lead her to her dream job/life.

In a sense, this is no different from the tradeoff everyone has to make between "stuff you enjoy doing" vs "stuff that will pay". Someone who knowingly makes a sacrifice to get close to the job they want is different from someone who simply can't find work at all; the author was far more like the former than the latter.