In June of 2012, I made the decision to leave my prestigious job at a well known media company in search of something new. Having lost my father to cancer less than a year earlier, my mind was in the state of “if it no longer makes you incredibly happy, walk away,” and in the midst of an unstable emotional state, I bailed.
Yes, I am the poster child for a generation raised to believe we can be whatever we want to be, and that if it doesn’t make you happy then change it! So I did.
With 8 months of survival money saved up, a resume filled with years of promotions and experience from a huge corporation, and a network of people I’d grown close with for years, I thought I was invincible. Sure, the internet was flooded with statistics of the unemployment rate, people getting laid off left and right, but there was no way that a young, eager, hard working, smart, and experienced girl like myself could possibly be unemployed for much longer than a few months. Right?
Before you start laughing at my naivete, understand that I graduated college, and got a full time gig right before the economy really crashed. Getting a job when I’d just left school wasn’t particularly difficult, and I’d worked with the same company for four years, getting promoted each year to a bigger and better position. I was sheltered, and believed strongly that I’d defy the odds. I admit now that that was silly, but at the time it made sense.
With the one year anniversary of my last full time gig rearing its ugly head, I’m left wondering where my next career home will be. Sure, I pick up freelance projects here and there, but it doesn’t pay the bills, and it’s certainly not where I’d pictured myself at 29.
While you complain about another Monday at work, I pray for the day that I have a job to complain about.
And yet each day goes on, more job applications submitted to the abyss, in hopes that a phone call will come through and an interview will happen.
Until then, you can find me experimenting with vegan cooking, spending time with my cats, and trying to put positive energy into the world so it comes back two fold.
Just another day of an unemployed work-a-holic.
-Sasha Huff
