Today will be yet another first day of work for me. I put in my last day at American Equity Mortgage last week, took off for Chicago for the weekend and am now ready to rumble.
I accepted an offer from the Belleville News-Democrat about two weeks ago. I’ll be designing and editing primarily, but it sounds like there is room to branch out a little into other areas as well.
I’m really excited to be getting back to what I love doing. It’s been hard to bide my time and take bill-paying jobs over the last few months, but hopefully it’ll pay off. I never thought that I’d get the chance to work at a paper again without having to make a major move to another state or something. I’ve been hesitant to write about it, because it just seems too good to be true.
I had a terrible dream last night that the whole thing was a heartless practical joke orchestrated by my brother. I showed up to my first day of work at BND, and nobody looked familiar. My brother had hired people to pretend to interview me and extend a fake job offer. I was so disappointed and upset; mortified that I’d been so foolish. I think some of this apprehension comes comes from my layoff last year. No matter how many assurances you get from a company or other employees, nobody can 100% guarantee that your job will exist in a year, or even six months for that matter. I’ve been in the work force since December 2007, and I have yet to hold down a job for longer than eight months. It’s frustrating.
I am hoping that things will turn out a little better this time around. If they don’t, then whatever. At least I’ll have worked a job that I actually enjoy for a little bit before starting over again. And at this point, I know I’m capable of regrouping and finding something else to pay the bills.
At any rate, I’m ready.
