Losing Your Job, Finding Yourself

Your story starts off like many others, finding yourself floating along in an endless sea of online job postings, applications, and cover letters. You didn't think you'd be here, but neither did anyone else. All you know is that you have to find a new job soon. After all, cat litter doesn't pay for itself.

So, you throw yourself into the activity of rewriting your resume, tweaking your cover letter just so, and submitting application after application. All of this work amounts to very little results.

You sulk, as your cat sprints around the house, which you think is very rude because the cat shouldn't be so carefree while you're so lost.

You sulk for a bit longer, but then get back onto Indeed because you have bills to pay. You apply for a job as a dining hall server at a independent living facility and get a call back within days. (They're clearly understaffed.) You used to think that some jobs were beneath you. However, you quickly learn that it's the other way around; clearly, some employees are beneath the company. It's cynical, you know, but sometimes feelings are actually reality.

Weeks go by at your slightly-above-minimum-wage job. Some weeks are difficult, others are easy. You begin to build rapport with your coworkers and they're the ones who make the time not as emotionally taxing. You'll miss them if when you find a new big-girl job.

On your days off, you apply, you reach out to people on LinkedIn, and sit and stare at the ceiling for a bit, before getting back to it. This is the rhythm you develop, as certain as the ebb and flow of the ocean. You get caught up in a feedback loop of job hunting causing you great anxiety, but not having a job in your field also gives you anxiety. You're a great big puddle of anxiety.

And then, your cat starts screaming at you to feed her. It has been a while since she--and you too--have eaten. While you prepare her food bowl, you look outside at the sunset, the vivid pinks and oranges of the late afternoon clouds, hear the noise of the birds roosting in the trees. On the table is your iPad, open on your latest art project. Life is still moving around you, while it feels like you've grown stagnant.

But, are you really?

Sure, you aren't in the place you thought you'd be as a 26 year-old. However, you've met new people at your part-time job that you've grown to care for a lot. You have a close group of maybe three or four friends that you can depend on. In your free time, you've picked up a couple of new skills, rediscovered old hobbies, even joined a local community choir.

You may not be where you thought you'd be, but somehow you've begun to find yourself. (Even if you haven't found a new job yet.)

For all of my fellow job seekers out there, the market is hard, but keep pushing through. All will be alright.