Friday, August 26, 2011

The End and The Beginning

A few weeks ago, a fellow Trojan alum contacted me on Twitter saying he had found my blog and that he found it both "sad and interesting." Which made me kinda worried. Does that mean he thinks that I'm a sad/pathetic loser!? I didn't realize that my blog was so depressing - because it was never meant to be. Before direct messaging him back, I was hoping that the topic of unemployment is inherently a downer, and that it wasn't my writing or my bitching and moaning about my life that was painting a sad picture of myself! Anyway, we twittered back and forth a bit and it turns out that he was in a similar sort of situation as me, and I concluded that he didn't think I was a loser! Phew!

After that interaction, I logged into my blog and saw that my last post was from June 10, 2010! That was a year and 2 months ago! So much has happened since then that I feel obliged to post an update to let my 3 readers know what I've been up to the last 14 months!

First, regarding the job situation. I actually found a contract position in brand management at a video game company in San Francisco from August - November 2011. The product I worked on was amazing and it's in stores now and I couldn't have had a better experience. Even with the 3 hour daily commute, I had a blast working there and feel like I learned a lot and made new friends and enriched my life. I've never said that before about a job. I'm shocked I'm even saying it now, but it's the truth! The best part of the gig? There was a gourmet fried chicken stand a block away...I had a frequent eater stamp card and earned two free meals. Amazeballs!

My contract ended at the end of November last year and the timing could not have been more perfect, because I had a baby at the beginning of January! This probably explains why I frequented the fried chicken place so often! So I was hugely pregnant and commuting to the city on the train and even did a face plant on the train at 7 months pregnant and I still have nothing bad to say about the whole experience. I'm shocking myself right now because I can always find something to complain about, but there is nothing. Seriously!

Before I had my baby, I had NO idea how I was going to feel about him and my life in general. I remember a coworker asking me what my plans were after the baby came, and I actually said, "Well, I'll probably take a month off and then I'll be back on the job market and returning to work ASAP." My coworker who is French gave me the dirtiest look, literally looked down at me and said, "In France that would be looked down upon." Well, Pierre, it has been over 7 months and I'm still staying at home and taking care of my baby. And I LOVE him! And it pains me to be away from him for more than 3 hours! Once again, I'm shocking myself by sharing this information, but I just can't help it.

Even though I love my baby, staying at home is probably the hardest job I've ever had. If you're interested, I'm starting a new blog and you can follow me there at www.momstreetjournals.wordpress.com. I haven't started it yet, but I'm hoping to share some stories, thoughts, insecurities, accomplishments, joys and perils about my new journey in mommyhood.

Thanks for reading!

3 comments:

KG said...

Very cool that you got a job at videogame company. I've always wanted to do that. I'm a 20-something unemployed MBA grad as well. I'm trying to find anything that's not accounting or going back to Asia to teach ESL again. lol.

(theglobalvagabond.com/absolutesl.com)

PatrioticMarine said...

It's me, that Trojan alum that contacted you about your situation. I am so happy things are going well. Congrats on the new addition to your family! To clarify, I never thought you were sad or pathetic, but I did empathize with your situation because of my own. Again, I am very happy to hear that things have improved and you easily transition back to the working world when you're ready.

chrrrrrs said...

@PatrioticMarine, thanks! It was totally my own insecurities that made me think it. :) Good luck to you too!