What's Next?
Earlier this week I was permanently laid off from my job, a new position I had started less than two months ago. It’s funny — I never thought that at age 25 I’d be filing for unemployment. But then again, I never thought I’d actually start writing a blog, so these truly must be strange times.
With this news and the global pandemic at hand, I felt disappointed, discouraged, even a little embarrassed. But, I also felt reassured knowing I wasn’t the only one struggling during this time, and I felt the warmth and support from family, friends, colleagues, and my therapist — all of them knowing the right things to say. And let’s be honest, there’s nothing like being unemployed during a mandated “stay-at-home” order to force you to reevaluate and think about what’s next.
So, as I sit on the floor in my tiny apartment, wearing no pants and eating a PB&J sandwich, here’s to the future:
To learning more about myself and what I’m passionate about (and actually investing in myself — austinmcneal.com will be constantly evolving over the next few weeks!).
To FaceTiming my nieces and nephew, because Uncle Austie misses you!
To finding work that’s meaningful.
To watching countless TikTok videos.
To finding an employer who shares my same values and truly cares for their people.
To working on new cross-stitching projects.
To hoping and praying things (COVID-19, unemployment, etc.) will get better.
I guess it’s true what they say — sometimes it takes a crisis to put things into perspective, to see what’s truly important (and by “they” I mean my mom, because that’s what she told me on the phone earlier this week). 😊
Stay tuned — there’s more to come!
P.S. If you have a lead on any marketing or communications jobs, drop me a line — my DMs are always open!
