"Unemployment jumps to 8 percent, the highest it's been since 1983."
This was the CNN breaking news I read just one day after losing my job. Still wrestling with the headache following a night of heavy pity and self-wallowing with my trusty friend Jack Daniels, it was just too ironic. I realized right then and there that I had become a Statistic, one of those people I had felt sorry for during the days when I could check the currently employed box. And while the current economic condition of the country was on every communication outlet ever created, I had felt immune to the problems. My plan for this year was to capitalize on them and purchase a house at a low cost! Boy, did someone throw that plan back in my face.
Today is Day 6 of unemployment. So far, I can't say that I hate it. It's all relatively new, and dare I say, vacation-like, without the dread of the return back to a paper-filled desk. Waking up after 9am, Spending the day working on projects that are important to me personally, and spending more time with those I care about are just some of the perks so far. I am eating better, spending less money, and relaxing (despite the continued calls from my ex-boss badgering me to help him). Sure, this feeling won't last. The constant job hunting and rejection will eventually get me down, and I'll begin to panic. Talk to me in six months, hell six weeks, and I'll probably be a tub 'o lard on my couch with Ben and Jerry's in one hand and a bottle of Vodka in the other just begging for death. Fine, that might be a slight over-dramatization of the potential circumstances, but one never knows. Until that day, I remain optimistic and at ease with the numerous options laid out in front of me.
