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 :)

Underemployment Sucks! So Make Your Own Path: E is for Establish.

Happy Tuesday, folks!

Nearly three months have passed since I returned home from Seoul, South Korea. I left behind a city that I would always remember for its gorgeous mountains; insane amount of coffee shops (one every single block—I kid you not); never ending talking saleswomen wearing oversized white knee socks and mini-skirts as they stood in front of beauty boutiques that blasted K-Pop music to passing pedestrians; the snappy dressers, the wild dressers, and the dressers that elicited the biggest WTF from me and my fellow teachers;

Oh, just another regular day in the subway

the businesses that used random English words mixed up to create the funniest, incoherent phrases or clever ones like the love motel named She'll or the coffee shop called Exorcist Coffee. 

Whaaaaat? That's a motel named She'll.

Have some coffee brewed by your friendly neighborhood exorcist.

I even miss those pesky delivery scooters ready to run me down on the sidewalk; the old ladies that pushed me aside better than any NFL quarterback to get a seat on the train; and hell, even those taxi drivers that drove past me dozens of times at 1:30AM because I stood on the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Ah, Korea. I miss you terribly. And of course, I miss my students most of all. The friendships I forged there will always remain in my heart, along with the adventures we took through the city and beyond. 

No matter where we are, we'll always be friends.

And who can forget those Saturday nights in the singing room, Noraebanging our hearts out (Karaoke in Korean—yes, I made it a verb)? This is only a snapshot of how I lived in Korea, but I hope it gave you a little sense of what I experienced. 

Back in America: Don't go away just yet, Fall! D:

NOW, I am back here in the ‘burbs, settled and readjusted to American life. (Was there always this many obese people here? We need to do something, country.) I’ve applied to more jobs than I care to count and tweaked cover letters to the point of ad nauseam. The results are a couple of part-time teaching gigs which I’m grateful for because money is money, and that's a whole lot better than a long day at home, being broke with nowhere to go. 

However, I see farther than the life I have now to a place where I have control over my career and achieve the goals and dreams harassing my mind. And this is where the E in ESPER comes in. Remember, ESPER is the goal setting/achieving model from the website Personal Excellence by Celestine Chua that I’m using to finish the edits and rewrites of COT and get it published through the difficult, hyper-competitive traditional publishing route. I’m not crazy; I have back-up plans A, B, C, and so on.

The E in ESPER stands for establishing your goal. 10 components make up this section but I’ll share five. You can find all them here:

1. Is your goal defined in the context of your life purpose?

I believe one of the key purposes in my life is to connect with as many people as possible to share joy, happiness, love, and care. I see writing as one of the ways I can carry out this purpose because it allows me to communicate with a wide audience. I hope that my books can not only entertain, but also inspire and bring joy and happiness to readers, and hell maybe even change the world for the better. No reason not to add that in the mix.

2. Ensure that your goal is a key goal with an 80/20 destination: part of the 20% of goals that will give you 80% happiness.

Hellz yes! I’d be very happy to be a published author. Not much to elaborate on here.

3. Plan for BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals   

Nobel Prize in Literature. If you don’t go all the way, why go at all?

4. Start with Long Term, then break down into short term:

             

90,000 words in 2 months

45,000 words in 1 month

11, 250 words in 1 week

1,600 words in 1 day             

5. Use positive framing:

I will write a novel I love that is ready to publish. I believe I will finish a novel I love that is ready to publish. Forget my under-employment, pressure from parents to get a real job or go back to school, external environment, pressures from society, and from my own limitation, impatience, and delusions on the lack of ability or talent or whatever that negative voice in my head thinks up to put me down. Purge the negatives. Time will take care of itself. You take care of yourself and your goals. You are not wasting your life because this is your goal, your big effing dream. Life is rich and full of opportunities that you have to create. Continue to grow and take control over your life.

And, that is where I am now. And it feels good. 

YIPEEEEE!

Thanks for reading. :-)

CSS