It was a year ago today that I stopped going to the office. I was on payroll through March, but I did not go to work. If ever there was a photo that shows what it feels like to be unemployed for as long as I have been - this is it. Months of fruitless job searches through the faceless black hole of internet job sites leave you, after a while, feeling sort of helpless. Useless. Pathetic. And the feeling of course, is based in lies. Regardless, too long feeling like this is deadly.
The truth is (as if you didn't know it) that it will be years before we recover from what happened in the winter of 2008 - and when we do, everything is going to look a lot different. There are so few jobs out there and so many of us vying for them that its beyond ridiculous.
It isn't that I'm not working either. In fact, I am working very hard. The work that I am doing is rewarding too. Its just that I am not getting paid. Because I am working for non-profits. So I will keep looking for work but I am going to do something else too. Because a year later, I am fully awake and I'm starting to smell the coffee.
I am going to reinvent myself.
Yes, yes, I've talked all around this subject before. But there has always been a part of me that has believed that the job fairy was going to appear. I have come to realize that the job fairy is either on life support or dead and no amount of clapping of hands will bring her back. This is not to say that I give up. Au contraire! This is to say that if Heather Armstrong can have a home made career, I can too. Because I read her blog and it is possible. Now I have no expectations that I will become a millionaire writing a blog - that probably will not happen. But I plan to try to try to figure out how to capitalize on anything and everything I am good at. Throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks, so to speak.
And here is where I get to blow on my dusty old horn for a minute: I'm good at a lot of damned stuff! I don't know if it is the stuff that yields total financial security or a pension fund but I am going to figure it out, put it in a bottle and kick some ass. Because Jabbaland is a big flaming bore and I want out of here!
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Precisely put, Val. I passed feeling like Jabba a year ago. Now I feel like the entire planet of Tattooine.
ReplyDeleteI have written and composed SO much while "unemployed" it's hard to consider myself as such. But the creditors and landlord have no trouble doing just that. :-)
Find a distinct theme in your blogs, edit them and publish them. I swear to you, my friend, you could be the 21st Century Irma Bombeck.
Something to do on the side while you keep the active job hunt going. I believe your writings could easily be a hit in print .. and then next ... the movie rights. (At THAT point, give ME call, will ya?)
Love and support,
--Ted
I completely agree with Ted-- WRITE THE BOOK!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd being 53 (almost!) is the perfect time to reinvent yourself. Just before I turned 53 I went back to college, and I'm having more fun than I've had in years(even while doing a job that I LOVED!) Sometimes it's just time to try something new!
It was so good to read this. My daughter Deena sent it to me because like Val I have been out of work since January 2009. I wondered what planet I was on and thank you Val I now know.
ReplyDeleteI am still looking for work and have been on several interviews and actually it was between me and another person viing for the same position. I lost it to a young male and when I asked why I was not given the position was told that he had more experience. I am almost 60 years old! Need I say more. Thank you Val I really needed to read this and hope that one day we can meet.