Tales of the Young and Unemployed, Part 2
Posted on November 7, 2008
Two weeks after unceremoniously losing my job, I can only say this: Being unemployed’s not as bad as I thought. You really ought to try it sometime.
Do I miss having a career path? You betcha. A promise of disposable income? Of course. I have bills to pay just like anyone else, and there are days I wonder just how long it’ll be before I’m back on my feet. At the same time, life rarely offers you opportunities like these to discover the kind of person you really are.
When I was working 8, 9, 10 hour days, I had a laundry list of things I swore I would do, “if only I had the time!” - from learning a new programming language, catching up on my reading, dabbling in web design, writing a short story, and going on photo shoots, among others. Hell, if I felt like it, I could do something really cool like backpack across Europe, take a road trip out west, open up a little bar in the corner of somewhere…
Suddenly, I have all the time in the world. What exactly will I do with it?
Being unemployed requires strength of character. Many of my friends, in both cyberspace and meatspace, have told me that this is the time to launch a photography/writing/web development career – an opportunity to transform my life. True as that might be, opportunity is really only half the story. What I’m learning the hard way is that it takes discipline to make any dreams come true. If passion is a blacksmith’s forge, then discipline is the hammer and anvil that makes something tangible from that pure creative energy.
With a Wii across the room, a hard drive filled with untouched games, and cable TV downstairs, it’s all too easy to become wrapped up in pursuits that will only leave you wondering where your time has gone. And thus, while I have spent plenty of quality time with old favorites such as Fallout and Secret of Mana, I have tried to do other, more productive things.
Most notably, I have learned some PHP (by messing around with WordPress and by actual reading), and I have refreshed some of my CSS/HTML knowledge by working on a new theme for this blog. In terms of my writing, I am still in the middle of outlining two story ideas, but I am facing a bit of writer’s block, so who knows when I will start putting pen to paper?
In the meantime, I have this blog to keep my writing skills honed.
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Well I sure do hope you keep your writing skills honed! They already speak well to your voice, so keep up the good work
It’s good to balance your life with productive and unproductive activities, as even the unproductive ones produce something, whether you like it or not