Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Welcome!

Welcome to my first official blog for 2010! I know there are many blogs out there that you are able to follow and I appreciate the time you are spending to read my thoughts and share my experiences. This blog is really a way for me to express the trials and tribulations of not only a seemingly never ending job search, but for everyday trials and tribulations that I can only hope help me grow as a Christian, women, daughter, sister and friend.

Like many people over the past 18 months, I became a "statistic" of the horrendous financial market in March of 2009 when I was laid off from selling transit advertising in the Dallas area. Although I knew the market was bad, I had the anticipation that I wouldn't be one of the hundreds of thousands of people who couldn't find a job immediately. Boy oh boy how wrong I was. I spent days, nights, weeks, perfecting my resume and sending it out for many types of positions. Positions I was overqualified for, underqualified for, even things I didn't have much interest doing, but knew would pay my bills. I went to interviews which friends recommended me for, including one for the North Dallas Super Bowl Committee, (YAY! was the thought that occurred to me at the time), and it seemed that it was always between me and one other person...and that other person was always the one getting the job.

I spent days, nights, weeks praying to God to help me understand why this had happened. What am I supposed to do now? When I stopped to think where my life was going and where I wanted to go, I realized they were conflicting ideas. When I was laid-off although I was upset, I never had an impending sense of doom or hopelessness. I had actually a feeling of being a bit relieved! Not because I had the utmost confidence that I was going to find a job, but that I didn't have to fake it at a job I wasn't happy at and probably wasn't doing my best at anymore. I knew what I had to do at that moment...go back to school, start over, become...a student.

So here I am, a student once again, trying to obtain the bachelor's degree which eluded me 10 years ago and I must possess now, not only for my own sense of accomplishment, but to compete in this job market which finds many of us at a crossroads. My first semester back is completed, but now I am on the hopefully not so long, but difficult journey back to the gainfully employed.

I hope you decide to take this journey with me.

JYP