Have it together

To have it together means to live sensibly. You can pay the bills, don't act foolishly and have a place to live which you can call home.

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Phrase: Have it together

We all live life at our own pace.

Some of us get it together reasonably quickly, while others take longer than usual.


Those who have it together live sensibly.

They have a roof over their heads, can pay the bills and no longer act foolishly and make mistakes as they did in their youth.


That’s right; having it together comes with age.

The older you are, the more chances you have of living a sensible life.

A few days ago, I watched a reality TV show that focused on the lives of incarcerated Japanese women after they were released from prison.

One woman, in particular, inspired me to write about the phrase have it together.

Her story began with a prison interview.

She was in her early 40s and imprisoned for the fifth time on drug violations.

Her drug of choice was methamphetamine.

While in jail, she said all the right things.

She regretted her life so far and wanted to get it together.

In prison, she had learned to be a hairstylist, so she had a skill which she hoped would help her find a job.

After leaving a Hokkaido jail, she entered a halfway house for women.

Her counsellor found her a job in a beauty salon, and after a time, she managed to save ¥130,000.

At this point, she had it together.

She had a place to stay, a job and money in the bank.

She was on the right track.

Then suddenly, she wasn’t.

She quit her job to move to Nagoya.

Things didn’t work out.

She left her hotel without paying, lived in a rental car without gas, and got back on drugs.

Life can fall apart so quickly.

Let her story be a lesson to you. If you have it together, keep it together.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 6th-grade education (age 11).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 80.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.



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