The first day of the rest of my life...
"Today is the first day of the rest of your life."
My dad used to say that about particular days in my life that he considered milestones. It could have been the first day of school, a trip to the dentist to get teeth yanked out or the first time I mowed the lawn. I never much liked hearing it because it was usually something that I was loathe to do that begat that cliched utterance.
But this year I've had several first days of the rest of my life. I moved in with my girlfriend in downtown Indianapolis, quit a good job at the library and moved out of Indianapolis with my girlfriend to Chicago.
The last of those days really was the first day of the rest of my life because it marked my first ever day of residence outside of Indiana. I always wanted to move to this great city and now after doing so, I'm kind of surprised that it took me so long to do so.
Am I happy?
Yes and no. My personal life is great. Thavary and I are getting along splendidly. We enjoy each other's company immensely. I've made a few friends up here, played softball in a nearby suburb and gone to some ballgames. I have trips to Blackhawks hockey games and Bears football games planned for November and December. I stay in touch with my buddies from back home and have visited them on occaision while others have trips planned to visit me up here in the next few weeks. My dad and I have remained close, talking on the phone every day and attending a few Bears games together. My dog JoJo is here to keep me company all hours of the day and night and he's very healthy and happy. So, my personal life is coming together just fine. No problems there whatsoever.
But professionally, I'll have to admit, it's been brutal. That I left a decent job where I was liked and respected, my work was well thought of and my hours were easy seems hard to believe sometimes. I was comfortable. I had a nice apartment right downtown in Indianapolis, had all my friends and enough money to live on and then some. But now I'm here, living in the city of my dreams - underemployed and rapidly going broke. Yes, my life savings - such as it was - is almost completely depleted. I have money stashed in emergency accounts that will take some effort to withdraw and I'm holding out as long as I can before going that route. It's been tough here.
Immediately upon moving I got a job writing sports for a local newspaper but it's only a part-time job. It allowed me to put something on my resume that resembled real work for this time period, gave me a small paycheck every month to go toward groceries and what not and it made me feel like a person once a week when I got dressed up and drove to a high school football game with a laptop computer and a press credential. Other than those brief glimmers of usefulness on weekends when I was doing what I loved, I spent most of my time in this tiny apartment scouring the internet for job opportunities. I sent off nearly a hundred applications, got very few responses and even fewer interviews. I've been told over and over that I either have to little experience or too much experience to fill the positions I've applied for.
But twice I've had potential employers tell me that I'm over-qualified for their opening but ideal for some consulting work they needed to have done. So I have some potential for income if these companies would ever just get around to developing a project for me to work on, expertly. The jobs would require creative writing and publicizing things, you know, the stuff I'm really good at. So, these jobs would probably lead to more jobs and more money. Great! I can't wait to get started!
And that's where I stand today, eagerly awaiting Monday morning when I report to my first real consultant job downtown near the Merchandise Mart. I'm going to work public relations for an online legal match firm. If you don't know what legal matching is, it's like online dating only for clients and lawyers. It's a bourgening industry in need of some good publicity and I'm just the guy to find and get it. As I said, I start Monday and I'll be getting paid per placement in the press for our firm. It's like sales only I don't have to ask for money. If I get a magazine to do a story on our firm, I get paid. If they want to do a story on our competitors, but want to ask our CEO a question, I get paid. If I get a blogger on a legal site to include us in a story about legal match services, I get paid. It pays for me to get my butt into the office and pound out the press releases, call the reporters and convince them that writing about our firm is a good idea.
I think I'm game. But supposing I'm not and nobody wants to write about us, the money isn't good... well, I'll move on. It's a line on my resume and some more experience in my chosen field of public relations. I'll continue writing for the papers and looking for a dream job or several lesser ones in hopes of one day making a fortune. But today is the last weekday in a long while, in which everybody gets up and goes about the business of living their professional lives while I sit at home and dejectedly stare into this confounded computer screen. I can hardly wait.
Go me. ~ APP
My dad used to say that about particular days in my life that he considered milestones. It could have been the first day of school, a trip to the dentist to get teeth yanked out or the first time I mowed the lawn. I never much liked hearing it because it was usually something that I was loathe to do that begat that cliched utterance.
But this year I've had several first days of the rest of my life. I moved in with my girlfriend in downtown Indianapolis, quit a good job at the library and moved out of Indianapolis with my girlfriend to Chicago.
The last of those days really was the first day of the rest of my life because it marked my first ever day of residence outside of Indiana. I always wanted to move to this great city and now after doing so, I'm kind of surprised that it took me so long to do so.
Am I happy?
Yes and no. My personal life is great. Thavary and I are getting along splendidly. We enjoy each other's company immensely. I've made a few friends up here, played softball in a nearby suburb and gone to some ballgames. I have trips to Blackhawks hockey games and Bears football games planned for November and December. I stay in touch with my buddies from back home and have visited them on occaision while others have trips planned to visit me up here in the next few weeks. My dad and I have remained close, talking on the phone every day and attending a few Bears games together. My dog JoJo is here to keep me company all hours of the day and night and he's very healthy and happy. So, my personal life is coming together just fine. No problems there whatsoever.
But professionally, I'll have to admit, it's been brutal. That I left a decent job where I was liked and respected, my work was well thought of and my hours were easy seems hard to believe sometimes. I was comfortable. I had a nice apartment right downtown in Indianapolis, had all my friends and enough money to live on and then some. But now I'm here, living in the city of my dreams - underemployed and rapidly going broke. Yes, my life savings - such as it was - is almost completely depleted. I have money stashed in emergency accounts that will take some effort to withdraw and I'm holding out as long as I can before going that route. It's been tough here.
Immediately upon moving I got a job writing sports for a local newspaper but it's only a part-time job. It allowed me to put something on my resume that resembled real work for this time period, gave me a small paycheck every month to go toward groceries and what not and it made me feel like a person once a week when I got dressed up and drove to a high school football game with a laptop computer and a press credential. Other than those brief glimmers of usefulness on weekends when I was doing what I loved, I spent most of my time in this tiny apartment scouring the internet for job opportunities. I sent off nearly a hundred applications, got very few responses and even fewer interviews. I've been told over and over that I either have to little experience or too much experience to fill the positions I've applied for.
But twice I've had potential employers tell me that I'm over-qualified for their opening but ideal for some consulting work they needed to have done. So I have some potential for income if these companies would ever just get around to developing a project for me to work on, expertly. The jobs would require creative writing and publicizing things, you know, the stuff I'm really good at. So, these jobs would probably lead to more jobs and more money. Great! I can't wait to get started!
And that's where I stand today, eagerly awaiting Monday morning when I report to my first real consultant job downtown near the Merchandise Mart. I'm going to work public relations for an online legal match firm. If you don't know what legal matching is, it's like online dating only for clients and lawyers. It's a bourgening industry in need of some good publicity and I'm just the guy to find and get it. As I said, I start Monday and I'll be getting paid per placement in the press for our firm. It's like sales only I don't have to ask for money. If I get a magazine to do a story on our firm, I get paid. If they want to do a story on our competitors, but want to ask our CEO a question, I get paid. If I get a blogger on a legal site to include us in a story about legal match services, I get paid. It pays for me to get my butt into the office and pound out the press releases, call the reporters and convince them that writing about our firm is a good idea.
I think I'm game. But supposing I'm not and nobody wants to write about us, the money isn't good... well, I'll move on. It's a line on my resume and some more experience in my chosen field of public relations. I'll continue writing for the papers and looking for a dream job or several lesser ones in hopes of one day making a fortune. But today is the last weekday in a long while, in which everybody gets up and goes about the business of living their professional lives while I sit at home and dejectedly stare into this confounded computer screen. I can hardly wait.
Go me. ~ APP
posted by Apex at 10:21 AM
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