I’ve been a bit quiet about this, but today I will share my secret. I am unemployed. It happened on Friday the 13th, just over two weeks ago. I kept quiet about it because I was in the process of interviewing for two jobs and well, technically, my severance package wasn’t up until about an hour and a half ago. I just got word back from the second and my anticipated dream job, that it’s a no-go. They went with another candidate. Boo. Oh well, pout-fest is over. It wasn’t meant to be and I’m moving on.
These past two+ weeks have actually been really nice, minus a few minor “I’m unemployed breakdowns”. I was miserable at my old job. I had been miserable for three years there. It wasn’t necessarily the company, it was more that I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to be doing. I had been looking into leaving for a while but the recession hit and the job market dried up so I felt stuck there since they hadn’t laid me off. At the time of the recession, my job as an urban planner totally changed. I was no longer their urban planner. I became the marketing girl. I got very resentful and that’s when I became miserable. What kept me my job; doing all the marketing; was what made me want to leave every day I was there. I played the marketing girl for over two years and I stopped growing professionally in terms of an urban planner. They finally hired a marketing girl this past fall so once I tried her, I was off the hook for the marketing and I could move back to urban planning. Except there really wasn’t any urban planning to do. Bored , not stimulated, and totally under-challenged as an urban planner, they saw how miserable I was and they let me go. Granted, it would have been nice to have a job already lined up, but in retrospect, I should have quit a long, long time ago. On the upside of being let go, I got to enjoy a 2+ week paid vacation!
So for the past two weeks, I’ve been taking care of a lot of things that hadn’t had time to do otherwise. I also went up to Cleveland for the dream job interview, which was fun in itself! I’ve come to appreciate the fact that I don’t have to iron a single piece of clothing now. I can structure the day the way I want to. It’s totally fine and acceptable to go to the gym at 3PM and start prepping dinner at noon. Jackson and I have had lots of bonding time. My portfolio is finally finished and I love the final product. I finally have time to help Nick with his iPhone game graphics. And I can focus on finding another job that is a much better fit for me.
While it’s stressful knowing that I won’t be contributing financially to our relationship come the next payday, Nick and I will get through this. Honestly, if I didn’t have Nick by my side, cheering my on and reassuring me that it’s really for the better that I’m no longer employed there, I would not be doing so great right now. (So thank you babe, for being such a huge support!) Things will work themselves out. They always do. As for right now, while very scary, I’m trying to embrace the excitement of not knowing what will come next!
