It was a year ago today that I got on the plane leaving Grand Rapids a day earlier than I had planned. It was the start of a new adventure. I was unemployed. While I didn't think it would last a year, here I am with the chance to look back.
Most people see unemployment as the worst time of their life. While I won't say being unemployed is fun, it isn't all bad. Here in a nutshell is what I did with my year.
Spent with my family, went on a trip to Colorado, visited NASA, the USS Texas, the Nebraska state capitol, San Jacinto, the Dr. Pepper Museum and saw Mammoth bones, I helped with homework, optimized making breakfast and lunches, started practicing leave no trace on the walk to school, rode 3300 miles including 2 centuries and a 50 miler with my oldest, showed my wife where I went to college, made new friends, learned new technologies, got a certification, researched some new companies, built a fence, refinished a window and a shelf, finished many a honeydo that I had put off, went camping 10 times, caught up with old friends, made a rain barrel, learned how to tie knots and lash poles, lost my airline status, learned to twitter, and blog and many other things I know I forgot.
After all this if I haven't figured out that the most important thing is spending time with my family, being healthy and learning new things then I have wasted a year. Not that I didn't like my job, its just that sometimes we get too caught up making a living to live.
Second is trusting the right things to find a new job, do the right things for your family, that you are prepared to get through till you start working again and most importantly that you have something to offer that someone will pay for.
Looking back between now and then it has been quite an adventure. Over the year I have learned a lot of new things. Who my friends are and how to make new ones. What is really important in life and
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Great outlook Chris, I have enjoyed the encouragement through the year!
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