Unemployment: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Perhaps unemployment isn’t the best word to describe my current position in life. I was not fired or laid off from a previous job, I am just in between employment opportunities. Nonetheless, this is my current state of being: at this point in time, I do not have a job. This is the first time since high school that I have not been working in one form or another. I worked during my senior year of high school, was employed by the university once in college, and held various jobs during my summers at home. When I first moved to Denver, I did have a temp position at a non-profit for the good part of 5 months. During my time there, I was looking for more permanent employment, but upon my last day at MH, I did not have another job lined up. Since then, my full attention has been turned towards finding a job. Like most situations in life, there are varying aspects to this. So, folks, I now present to you, the good, the bad and the ugly of being “in between employment opportunities.”

The Good

I get to read, a lot. I spent a good deal of my college career with my nose buried in one book or another. However, even if I read about tuberculosis in the Russian prison system, structuralism versus functionalism in anthropological theory and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, I still managed to not read many of the classic “must read” books. I created a massive reading list, and with a library card that doesn’t expire until 2032, I’m slowly making progress. Currently I’m reading The Rule of Four (not a classic, but it’s still interesting) and next up: Fahrenheit 451.

I’m going to the gym on a fairly normal basis. I’ve always been athletically challenged, and I’ve always associated exercise/fitness with athleticism. It’s taken me awhile to get that correlation out of my head, and slowly but surely I’ve realized I can go to the gym and not look like a complete buffoon.

I have 7 day weekends. The rest of the world, of course, does not, but when I apply my life to the real world, this at least translates to 3 day weekends, 3 ½ if I’m lucky. This is especially handy because it allows me to go visit my boyfriend, P, for longer amounts of time than if I was employed. More on him, (and more of the good), in a minute.

The Bad

While I’m working to correct this issue, I have become re-addicted to daytime television. Of course daytime television encompasses a wide variety of unsophisticated, shallow television viewing opportunities: talk shows, court tv, and, my own personal vice, soap operas. I guess if I can’t find a job, I could always become a soap opera writer. I mean how hard could it be? At all times, the storylines of the various characters must include: amnesia, an evil twin/sibling, love affair and subsequent unexpected pregnancy, some sort of disaster, be it natural (hurricane, flooding etc) or man-made (train, car, plane wreck), and death means nothing, characters can be reinserted back into the storyline no matter what their ultimate demise was. Well at least I have a Plan B now.

I’m finding it increasingly harder to fill my free time. A good chunk of my day is spent working on resumes, and looking for positions in which to submit these resumes. However, this cannot take up a complete day, every day of the week. Luckily I’ve found various ways to consume large chunks of time:

-As mentioned before, I read a lot of books. However, if I read for long enough, I tend to fall asleep, which will ultimately screw up my sleeping patterns. I love naps, I just can’t take them when I’m already getting enough sleep.

-I’m working on reorganizing my music library on my computer—all 2300 songs—so that every song has a title, artist, and album.

-I am typing up recipes, so in the event when I get to move out of my current basement dwelling and into my own place, I will have things to cook.

-I write really long blog entries about being unemployed.

These projects should take a while, but when they are completed, I will have to resort to more desperate means of time-consuming tasks like drying and straightening my hair (I have a lot of unruly hair, and this really does take a long time). When this happens, the last phase of “being in between employment opportunities” comes into play.

The Ugly

The whole job searching process does not do great things to one’s self-esteem. Okay, if the job search is unsuccessful, it does not do great things to one’s self-esteem. There’s always a certain amount of elation when you get an interview or a call back, but if rejection follows those, well let’s just say it becomes a very humbling experience, a good old-fashioned blow to the ego.

Of course, I am not the first, nor will I be the last fresh college graduate to be going through this. My experience is nothing new. When I do find a job, this period in my life will not seem as dramatic, but living in the this moment, right now, is a whole other issue. Something will work out, of course, and I am still optimistic and confident that I will once again become a member of the working world. That doesn’t stop moments of self doubt and hopelessness for creeping up and sinking in on occasions. They come less frequently, but still I have to wonder, how many days can I spend in a house, with just a cat for company, before I start talking to the walls or thinking I can actually communicate with the cat. Meow? Meow, meow. Meow!

Alright then, you’ve managed to get through this, congratulations! My posts will not always be novellas, but that was kind of fun. Maybe I’ll get the hang of this after all. If anything “being in between employment opportunities” will allow me to hone my blogging skills.