Pizza Night

In the beginning of June 2016 The Wife and embarked on a cross country trek the goal of which was to provide our son with a better family environment. We arrived in our new home state (well my wife's original mother land) of Oregon. The decision to move meant she would leave behind a 10 year long career and I would leave a well paying and well loved position. We swallowed hard and put rubber to asphalt because it would be better for the kid.

It is now the dawn of September and I have been unemployed for three months. The Wife got employment almost immediately but did not start the new job until August. I however lingered in the resume devouring abyss. Doubting. Dreading. Fearing. Worrying. Questioning my worth to my family.

Today that changed. I am a new hire again. Amusingly it is with the same company that hired The Wife. So tonight we celebrate with pizza.

The recent journey from unemployment to salary has given me time to ponder a few things. In most of my interviews the comment inevitably comes up about my short periods of employment. Questions as to why I was not employed at any one position for very long.

Some of these questionable periods of employment are short because they were contract based. Most were short because I have suffer from daily attacks of the Dark Duo: depression and anxiety. This analysis only comes with the benefit of hindsight.

It is on those short periods of employment I began to ponder. When seeking a job, a paycheck, they are detrimental. However for my preferred career, my passion, of being a writer and a game designer, they are priceless.

Where an employer sees a lack of dedication, indecisiveness, and an inability to stick with a project the writer sees knowledge derived from a lengthy breadth of experience. A multitude of past lives from which to pull and craft stories.

I will not recount all I have done and what I have learned from it, but I will say I no longer view my past work experience with dread. From this position of once again being employed I can calmly analyze my past.

So tonight we celebrate.

Tonight we eat pizza.