When you’re unemployed, life is weird. It’s an odd transition time. You’re not doing nothing, because time is spent brushing up your resume, reading articles on ’10 Ways to Ace your Next Interview’ and completing Buzzfeed quizzes. However at the same time, it’s like there are still never enough hours in the day. I still haven’t cashed in my spa certificates, I still haven’t finished those freelance pitches or my online portfolio. In this limbo state, you find yourself adopting new behaviors or altering your lifestyle to fit this weird, hazy time. In other words, you have a butt ton of #unemploymentproblems to deal with.
Here are 10 #unemploymentproblems I’ve encountered:
1. #BagLadyChic. At any given time I am carrying around any and everything I may or may not need in the next 24 hours. It’s fucking heavy. And I still haven’t cashed in my massage certificates.
2. You spend a lot of time wandering around. Some days I might have two coffee meetings and lunch plans with a friend which means I am busy but I also have a lot of time to fill inbetween. I have a constant stash of bandaids in my pocket for blisters.
3. You spend a lot of time in coffee shops drinking coffee and mooching wifi. Pro Tip: The Second Cup at King and Bathurst is awesome as are most Aromas. Starbucks is decent but you’ll have to fight for seating.
4. You spend a lot of time eating on the subway. Last week, 70% of my day was spent on transit. Which meant lunch and dinner were both eaten in grand style on the streetcar. Klassy.
5. Some weeks are equally shitty as they are awesome. I had a shitty week. But it was also kind of awesome. I had a job offer but I fought a certain male in my life who I am still angry at as I write this. I was exhausted, emotionally and physically but for the first time in a while, I saw my hard work starting to result in something.
6. My laptop is my BFF. I spend a lot of time alone. Most of my friends are 9 to 5’ers and the boy works long hours and nights. Adding to this is the fact that I have night classes three days a week so I work on blogging, resumes or homework whenever I can. So me and my laptop are suppppeerr close.
My two month experiment is coming to an end (and some MAJHUR updates are promised) but in the meantime, I felt like I needed to get some of these off my chest. While being unemployed has given me the opportunity to really work on myself, it’s given me a lot of headaches. It’s tough to constantly be in limbo and not being sure where exactly you’re going. And carrying around those huge bags and laptop everywhere? Well, they can make the journey even tougher.
Yes Way, Taipei! 