I originally had this post titled as "I Survived SJ Made" and realized that it was a little silly for me to have a title stating that I survived because it wasn't a life threatening event. After some reflection I've decided that it was more of a milestone in my life. With that said, this post might be a little bit longer and not like my previous blogpost, so I have to say thank you for putting up with me and continuing to read my posts. I'm going to ramble a little bit in this post and talk about what I feel in my heart. Jenna from White Rabbit Photography posted on her personal blog this week an open letter to her readers. I guess you can say it inspired me, and this is my open letter so please bare with me while I speak/write what's been on my mind.
**Warning** This blog post is looooooooooooooooong. I wanted to split the post into two, but I also didn't want to wait too long before posting my experience review so here it is all in one long post.
It's been 7 months since I was laid off from my corporate job and at the beginning I have taken a month or two off from actively searching for a job to enjoy the holiday season, but other than that I have always been searching job listings, twitter posts and utilizing any other career networking channel I have available to me. And here I am still unemployed. It is a very very very depressing feeling. Don't get me wrong, I'm not depressed because I have such a wonderful support group made up of my family and friends (more on that later) but there are times when I can't but help feel a little saddened by the fact that I still cannot find a job with my experience in today's job market. When I originally started blogging it was to keep myself distracted and busy learning new things. An opportunity to find myself and work on becoming a better happier me. I had the opportunity for continued learning/education but I didn't gravitate in that direction. Instead I gravitated towards building my crafting and creative skills. This is what made me happier. Right before my event at SJ Made I read a guest post on Blogging it Forward by Anita Boeira about some tips from Peter Shankman. One quote in particular caught my eye:
My last job had things I loved about it, but also more things I hated than loved. I never imaged myself at a desk job doing the mundane things in life. I love communicating and working with others. I also had a knack at being organized and putting all the puzzle pieces together as a project manager. But I wasn't doing what I was passionate about and I wasn't having fun at work every day. I worked hard at that company for 5 years and there were multiple times at the early stages with that company when I would call my mom and sister to cry and complain about how unhappy I was and I just wanted to quit. Every time I got the same response from them telling me a job is a job and you have to just deal with it, so I dealt with it and in the end the job was the one that let me down. So when I saw the quote I felt like it was talking directly at me. It made me understand that things happen for a reason. You always read it in books, hear it on TV, but let me tell you, when you experience a moment like this for yourself it has a lot more meaning.
