Maintaining optimism

After doing the job search for awhile, it's easy to get discouraged, especially if you haven't had the results you would have wished by the time you expected. One of the crucial things I have found essential to do is to take a deep breath, focus and try to put it all into some sort of perspective. This is not the end of the world, even though there are financial and emotional challenges.

I do my best to maintain my optimism, and keep focused on the goal of getting another job. That's not to say that I walk around with a smile plastered to my face. But by the same token, I try not to go around frowning, either. It's a balancing act.

When this first happened back in November, I lost my sense of balance. Even though I saw this coming, I was thrown for a loop, and it took a certain amount of time to regain my footing. I know for a fact that I took my family along on an emotional roller coaster ride. There were sleepless nights, intense conversations and lots of scary "what ifs." When I finally opened my eyes and saw the emotional toll that this was taking on me and my family, I knew that I had to be the one who changed. The sooner, the better.

Still, it took some time and a lot of effort. But after a long couple of months, even though I was fully cognizant of the seriousness of our situation, I was more able to put it into a more realistic perspective. No, this was not the end of the world. It was the establishment of something new for us. Perhaps something for the better.

One of the more welcome changes was when I began to joke again. Admittedly my sense of humor is a bit on the "hard to get" side, but my family is used to it, they love me anyway, and they more or less understand where I'm coming from. There was a sense that the ups and downs were leveling out somewhat, and of beginning to be able to focus more on moving on. Even though I am still friends with many of the folks I used to work with and hope to stay friends with them in the future, I can feel my situation drifting away from theirs. That's probably a healthy thing.

Forgive the grammar, but I'm trying my best to "don't worry, be happy." Yeah, I do worry about the future sometimes. Money is always a concern. But I know in my heart and soul that this time will pass, and new things and better things will happen. I may not currently have a job, but I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a wonderful wife that I've been married to for a long, long time. I have two great kids who are turning into excellent young adults. I'm also thankful for Dan, my mentally retarded brother-in-law who lives with us. He's a sweet guy who tries hard to please and to help out around the house. He does the dishes (no, he LOVES to do the dishes).

I'm seriously thankful for that.