Date posted: March 9, 2007 - Friday
Title: The Path Less Traveled
Current mood: Stunned and scared
Feelings I had hoped were buried long ago are in danger of welling up again.
I have gone through several periods of unemployment or underemployment in my life and know how isolated and worthless you can begin to feel.
And now I am faced with that situation again and only hope I can fight off the feelings.
Yesterday afternoon I was summoned to the conference room at work and, out of the blue, told the company had made an "economic" decision and was eliminating my job.
Well, knock me over with a feather. All I could say, over and over, was, "amazing."
I got the severance package they had promised other people when they first started making cuts last November, but in today's economy, and especially in San Diego County where the cost of living in outrageous, that money will not go far. And the loss of medical benefits is really scary.
The unexpected news was even more startling when I had been told "I had nothing to worry about" by my boss. But then he left for greener pastures within the company only a few days ago; displaying as he went an I-don't-care-anymore attitude.
So now I am faced, at an advanced age, with the prospect of trying to find a job. It is not something I look forward to.
I have been getting a lot of positive encouragement from people I know saying they are sure there is something better ahead for me. All I have to do now is to hold off the negative feelings and see what happens.
It is time to tighten the belt and stay close to home. I have never lived an extravagant lifestyle, but my tendency in times like this is to hunker down and really hide out. Maybe not the best course to take, but I am not sure I have the support system to do much more.
So I embark on a new path in my life. I hope it may be like Robert Frost's "path less traveled" and that I can
