The Bright Side of Underemployment

I must be kidding, right? The bright side of underemployment? Read on.

I don't believe it!  

Life has its moments where it exerts more effort than usual to bury you in a grave and sit on top of it for extra good measure. Unemployment/ Underemployment may or may not fall under that category but to some people it certainly does. Like me. Now I can bore you with the details of how I graduated from college, graduated from grad school with a Master’s Degree, and went abroad to gain international experience, but I won’t because you’re not a potential employer. (If you are please email me. I’m quite the amicable person. ^_^)

My story mirrors many others and, although I cannot speak for every unemployed/underemployed twenty-something in this new brave world of ours, I believe we’re tired of explanations of how the government, the economy, meritocracy, or capitalism failed us. We are ready to change the rules of an old game or maybe we are ready to introduce a new game altogether.

Now, you might say, “Well, you wouldn’t be having problems finding a job if you majored in (insert math, science, or technology specialty here).” True. I swapped a high demand sector for an area that seduced my passions and strong desire to bring happiness to the most people possible. I have no regrets for the choices I’ve made and do not intend to cultivate regrets somewhere along the passage of time. I have my education, my mind, and a vision for the future. I cannot go wrong unless I willfully sabotage myself.   

My status: underemployed. I managed to secure a part time teaching at a community college and an international school located in a small liberal arts college tucked in the middle of a pine forest. The latter offered me free room and board so I leaped on it and moved out of my home to a single dorm room where I would share a bathroom and shower with six other females. I’ve moved three times before so I’m comfortable with the change and although not ideal, the bathroom situation bothers me very little. I’m grateful for the personal space to write, which will be my focus for the next threw months: writing and editing.

I’m thankful, thankful, thankful for what I have now because many more have it worse than I do. Of course, I had moments of panic about how to pay pending and impending bills, but I repeated my mantra for worry detox: Stop worrying. It does not help the situation. Worrying won’t make God have more pity on you and throw a golden bone on your lap this instant. So stop. Just stop it. I repeat it several times and I feel better. I feel grateful. In the midst of my gratitude, I thought about all the gems that unemployment/ underemployment offers.  Here’s what I came up with in my own personal journey:

You have more time to think about your life, where you want to go, and who you want to be. (Reflections, reflections!)

You can work on and improve your spiritual life.

You have more time to work on projects that usually would be left undone or neglected. (I revitalized this blog and my writing during my unemployment period.)

You can spend more quality time with your family and friends (if you’re smart about it).

Went down memory lane: awesome friends and family

from highschool, college, grad school, and Korea

You appreciate your family and friends more.

You can appreciate the necessities you’ve taken for granted.

You can take a break from the rat race to refocus and re-envision your life.

You appreciate five dollars a lot more than before.  (OMG, I’m rich! *tears* T_T << My reaction when finding five dollars in my wallet. Shows you how much I look in there.)

You budget more intelligently because you’re forced to do so.  (Bye bye wasteful, meaningless purchases. You do not NEED that. This is still a toughie for me but I have come a long waaaaaay. Trust me.)

You have more hope and anticipation of what’s to come because you believe it will be better than right now.

"Oh, the places you will go." ~Dr. Seuss

How about you? If you’ve ever endured unemployment/underemployment, what would you add to the list?

Thanks for reading,

Sammy :)

Someday

Someday. A day in the future where it all works out. A day when I look back to the now and laugh at the hurt and think: it really wasn’t that bad. I had a someday moment last night as I thought about my depression through college and how I survived it. External triggers unfortunately dug them up from the hole whence I banished them. Usually when I let the memory of those years resurface, my heart aches or I cry, but this time I only laughed. What I had experience came nowhere close to the great suffering of countless others.

Look on the bright side!

I do not belittle my pain, however, because it’s part of who I am. I’ve just grown enough to not let pain hinder me in any way and to laugh it off. So, today, I have hope in someday, but even greater still because I will take an active part in making my someday happen sooner than later. As the last few days of 2012 roll on by, my mind grasps at someday. It will be more than strength to surrender pain and choose happiness because I can do that today. It will be a new life in California; days at study near the water; winters snowboarding in Colorado; and sunsets at the beach full of peace, smiles, and a good friend beside me to share a hot potato and a cool drink. These are the days I will fight for in 2013. Along with these goals:

-Finish editing COT

-Get an agent for COT

-Get COT published

-Finish AWYG (Alien Within Your Gates; short sci-fi drama)

-Send AWYG to a publisher

-Save $4000 for Japan

-Live and work in Japan for a year

-Read 100 books and review them
-Live in France 

-Apply to Ph.D. programs in California

-Get accepted to a school in California

-Live in California

Into the West: a new life awaits! 

It’s astounding really what you can learn in only four months without work or school. My return from Korea has had its lows with several points of high. One of those highs included reviving this blog. It has become a dear friend to me. It helped halt my drifting though Ghostland to rise and walk in the land of the living.

So, for this last post of the year, I want to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading,

CSS :)

Big CHANGES!

Changes are good. I like changes. Changes mean growth. If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ll see that I’ve done a little work around here. First, I’ve renamed it to Do it WELL. In my last post, I realized that I didn’t want to make this blog about me, but about you and everyone else who happens to come along here. I called it Do it WELL because I’m a firm believer of doing well whatever it is you dream to do. If you don’t give it your all, why give anything at all? Second, I’ve developed seven little gems that will inspire the new entries of my blog: creativity, wellness, joy, unlimited potential, community, goodwill, and achievement. If you look to your right, you’ll see I’ve added some links to help readers who are aspiring authors. To your left, you’ll see a series of links that for anyone searching to improve his or her state of mind and find motivation and inspiration from a variety of different voices. I found these sites to be quite helpful. 

 

Four things will be coming soon:

  1.) A corner for stories on people who persevered and made it

       

  2.) A corner for good news (people doing good things for other people) because we don’t hear it that often

  3.) A corner for game changers (people unafraid to take risks or simply go against convention) 

        

  4.) A corner for teachers on living with less

I’ll be sure to search for a minimum of three to four articles for each corner and try updating them every several days. I’ll do a feature twice a week on any of these interesting stories I pick up on my search. 

Well, what do you think? What else would you like to see? Please let me know! I’d like to hear your thoughts, comments, suggestions, or ideas.

Thanks for reading,

CSS :)

Living Here or Over There? Maybe it's Boredom. P is for Planning: Part 2

I see my future so clear in my head and make the mistake of living there rather than living here, in the present. I close my eyes to the present because I hate a particular situation and don’t want to deal with it. I wait for time to wreak its destruction on the present as it relentlessly pushes forward to the future. And lo and behold, time performs its job wonderfully. And yet, time frightens me. I have to be on my toes. I can’t blink, take a breather, or sit one place and think and think, my favorite pastime. Thinking. I do it too often. Or I think of nothing. I focus on emptiness. It’s nothing sophisticated like meditation but rather I stop the flow of endless thoughts, worries, and voices in my head that disturb my peace and cause anguish to my soul. I breathe. I can make a choice. I can live over there where it’s perfect in my mind and all the components making up a difficult situation disappear. But, like all choices, consequences lurk close by and wait for the right time to attack. Some don’t have to wait long; others can see years before they strike.

It looks nice now...

Living in the perfect future means abandoning my present, abandoning my life right now.   Walking zombie, anyone? Fake smiles, concerted efforts to listen, be present and respond in kind that it meshes into one big mess—all of it becomes a chore until it finally hits: living has become a chore. And that is boredom my friends. Take another breath. Zoom and focus and remember what living is all about. It’s not all about the tasks on the list, the annoyances, the situation, the external, the frustration bursting inside, or all those pieces that work together to tug that big sigh out of you. It’s about the people in life. The connections you create, strengthen, weaken, and destroy. Smile in the middle of it all and everything becomes better. The present is okay. I have to make it okay.

Press the button, already!

SO, what does this have to do with writing? Don’t get trapped in the dream. The hard work gets done in the present, not the future. Let’s check out what I have done for part two for P, Planning.

Continuing from Section 2:

Schedule Your Goal Tasks: Not all tasks are created equal.

·      Here’s a list of the important tasks needed to achieve my goal:

o   Writing 1600-2000 words/day

o   Editing one scene/day

o   Blogging M-Th

o   Staying in touch with other blogs (20-25/day)

o   50 tweets/day on my writer twitter account
o  Honing my craft- research on improving my writing, book, marketing, traditional and non-traditional avenues for publishing
o  Reviewing grammar and writing tools

o   As important as these tasks are, some deserve more of my time than others (i.e. writing 1600-2000 words/day and editing scenes and blogging). However, since these things are clearly the hardest to perform, it’s easy to fall into the habit of doing the lesser, but easier tasks, which pile together to eat away time that could have been spent on high priority tasks. Or I regularly do one of the harder, high priority tasks and neglect others that are equally as important. For instance, I feel like I’m blogging more than writing and editing my novel. That needs to change soon! Determining priorities and avoiding time-wasters are an essential component to having my ultimate goals realized.

That’s all for today, folks!

Thanks for reading,

CSS :)

Impatient where it doesn’t work; Patient where it will. P is for Planning: Part 1.

Happy Monday, folks! Had a good weekend? Ready to tackle this week? I’ve set up my goals and will get them done. I’ve fallen into the habit of “doing” instead of “hoping.” Hope serves its purpose when times prove dark and dreary, but when it comes to my tasks, I don’t want to say, “I hope I get them done.” Just get them done!  If you haven’t noticed already through reading my blog, I’m fired up about goal setting, planning, execution, and achievement. I woke up one day and realized that I was sick of looking for jobs, sick of tweaking my cover letter, sick of emailing and contacting employers back and forth, sick of waiting, and sick of passivity in general! I’ve only applied to positions that my family and friends suggest along the way, but I’ve plugged my effort into looking on my own. Maybe if one or two things pop up that pique my interest, I apply.  

Okay, I'm not that crazy ha ha ha.

Yes, it’s probably an idiotic move to stop searching for work. It’s only been three months since I returned from Korea. You might say I have a problem with patience. But here’s the thing, I don’t like to waste my time on things that I know make me unhappy in the long run because I already know what I want. I want to be a writer, founder of a youth organization focused on civic engagement, and a college professor. Very few of these jobs I’m applying to will lead me to closer any of these goals. Now, I’m not a generalist. Several of these potential jobs to offer valuable experience to be gained, I admit. I could just go back to school, but I want to establish myself as a writer first because when I’m in school, I’m in school. I’ve yet to adjust everything else to school life. So before I disappear from the face of the planet pursuing a PhD in Sociology and Education, I want to first try being a full time writer. School is great, but life outside the ivory walls teaches lessons of equal value, if not sometimes of higher value.

I do have the luxury of living with parents who support me financially despite their gross disappointments in my job search. Right now the desire to find my own space motivates my sporadic efforts to find a job. I’m thinking I’ll either go abroad again or find employment in a school that offers me room and board, which covers all the basics I need to write: a fully functioning apartment with paid utilities, two meals a day, and my MacBook. Seriously, that’s all I need to make it as a writer, along with all my books for reading and honing my craft. Of course, it helps to have some cash, and I am willing to perform what’s necessary to cover other bills and hang out with my friends. I don’t even need a television. Thanks to the Internet I catch up on my favorite shows (about 4) on the weekends, so my weekdays are TV free except Thursday nights when Scandal is on because that show is freaking awesome! Aside from that one night, I highly recommend to stop watching television. It seriously is a waste of time that could spent doing something your really enjoy and worthwhile to you long term. Television is addicting, saps your energy, and makes your brain dull, but you knew that already. However, I digress.

Or else...

Touché, Raptor. Touché 

Let’s take a look at what I’ve come up with the P portion of ESPER. Planning. Now, last week I couldn’t jump on it because this process requires more work than the past two so I’m breaking this entry into parts so I don’t lose your attention with some big long post on planning. I don’t delve entirely into the planning process, so if you want the whole story, go here. Okay, let’s start!

1.)  Develop Your plan right down to specifics. Guiding questions:

a.     What is the full list of tasks to undertake?

                                      i.     Writing 1600-2000 words/day

                                     ii.     Editing one scene/day

                                   iii.     Blogging M-Th

                                   iv.     Staying in touch with other blogs (20-25/day)

                                     v.     50 tweets/day on my writer twitter account

                                   vi.     Honing my craft- research on improving my writing, book, marketing, traditional and non-traditional avenues for publishing

                                  vii.     Reviewing grammar and writing tools

2.)  Fit Your Plan into Your Schedule. Guiding questions:

a.     What is the best time to work on your goal’s tasks?

                                      i.     Early morning to the afternoon is when I most alert to work. I tend to get sleepy toward the evenings around 7pm when my productivity is cut in half. So it’s best that I work in the mornings, which means waking up early: the bane of everyone’s existence, but in my case it must be done if I make a habit out of it.

b.    How are you spending your time everyday? I want to wake up every morning and ask this question, except it’ll go like this: How will I spend my time today? If I’m serious about completing the activities I mentioned above to achieve my goal then I need to create a pretty good calendar that is specific! Specificity is key here because general comments such as “Get this done today” aren’t going to work or last long before I fall off the truck and start back at zero. I have to instead focus on “Conduct research on successful plotting: 00:00-00:00” and so forth.

And that’s all folks for today. Tune in tomorrow for the rest. :)

Thanks for reading,

CSS