Good things come to those who wait, but strike while the iron's hot!

C'mon, what are you thinking? Yeah You! You are unemployed and you just do arts and crafts and go to coffee shops with friends and play volleyball all day long and hang out with your mom and then blog about it!? And you call that productive? Seriously! Wake up! Dooooo something with your life. Get a job. And put that cookie down, how many have you eaten now, anyway? Fine, you can finish that one, but seriously take some action for a change, get outta those uggo pjs and go out and save the whales!

So those are the kind of thoughts that trouble the mind of the unemployed...hmm. So that's what you hear; that's what people might say to you or think about you (or let's be real, at least that's what I personally hear myself thinking from time to time about myself). And it is sad, because it really shouldn't be that way. (Well for the most part). But sometimes I can't help but feel this way, and I don't know if it is just me overanalyzing, society and its pressures or a combination. I mean, I have only been unemployed for one month and by choice, and graduate school will begin in about two weeks, and I know plenty of people (at least 6 are coming to mind right now) that go to graduate school and are unemployed and and and... so, what is my big beef with it? Why can't I just enjoy my month without work or accept and appreciate that I may not have a job for the next year?

Isn't it shameful that we often write off most activities/thoughts/etc. that do not produce some sort of "product" or $$$$$ as wasted time or time spent "goofing around," not taking life seriously. While I am unemployed and without a regular cash flow, I still feel pretty serious about life for the most part. Why is it that we do not consider ourselves productive if we decide to spend the entire day baking grandma's cookies and catching up with friends...unless we also saved a child from drowning, ran a marathon, painted the entire house, took the dog for a walk, got the kids to soccer practice and most importantly worked an 8 hour shift? Seriously. If there are any pills our society needs to be taking, its a chill pill! And all these expectations of accomplishing multitudes of daily activities get even worse for the jobless. Those stay-at-home mas and pops out there should know how people look at those who are not making money. I mean, c'mon, if you have nothing else to do but be productive, one would look at baking cookies and being with a friend as potentially "worthless," even though both you and Kodak know your friend and those cookies are probably worth a whole lot more than an hourly wage or salary. Priceless, right?

Right? Hmm...wrong...hmmm...maybe right...hmmm?



Well, I'm not really sure. Maybe we tend to define ourselves by materials, output, money, and quantity when we also need to be focusing on finding quality, challenging ourselves, questioning our lifestyle and beliefs, living out our goals and dreams even if it may lead us to a pot of pennies. I think I am having trouble adjusting to life without a job because of how I have tended to live my life. Rather than just relaxing and listening to my deeper feelings sometimes I dive into things compulsively; I do too many things at once and I feel like it is better that way because the more stuff you do, the less you miss out on life and the fuller life you lead right? Well to a degree for me this is true. I do live life in a healthier fashion when I am busy, but this is not always the case. Only when I am qualifying my activities and truly being present and enjoying myself, I am fine. Sometimes this is not the case, and I realize I just need to breathe and have some patience and just wait or do nothing, and that can be just as productive if not more productive than going out there and engaging in a job or activity that doesn't suit me.

So with that all said, I patiently wait for my future to unfold, trusting it will all work out, while also accepting that that little voice in my head does have some legitimate points too, we must take some action to enable change. While I am very much enjoying this being free from labor, I have come to the decision that I want to work. It's just something I have to do. However, the job hunt has been less than fruitful. And this brings me back to the earlier topic. The perspective of quality of life versus quantity relates to my unemployed status, because I wonder to myself what is better? Sending out three decent applications a week, or spit out three-four-five applications a day? Which would yield more job opportunities? One would guess the second one of course just due to pure numbers, but at the risk of waiting around and being jobless for an unknown period of time, I have tried to take the qualitative approach and put out only applications to jobs I truly want. I'd much rather wait for a job that is right for me, than jump on the next one available. And it is hard sometimes because when you are not actively pursuing something it is hard to believe it will come to you. When you think about it--that idea in general is an oxymoron, it's two convential wisdoms that collide but that coexist. Good things come to those who wait, but strike while the iron's hot--that's the ticket. That's what I gotta do.