Life at 2,520 Hours

Today marks 15 weeks since I was laid off. Oh, it sounds so very long when I say it like that. I prefer to savor this one last day of September and continue to tell myself that it's only been "about 3 months."

But! I didn't come here today to wallow in the passage of time. Actually, I didn't come here to wallow at all. I came to celebrate a couple exciting things (none of which include keeping my promise to blog twice per week...oops.) 

First, I have to give a shout out to MN Job Partners. It's a state-run program that really helps people who have been laid off. I've been using them for training, but they offer a slew of other assistance for those who need it. I'm so grateful for them because they enabled me to enroll in travel school! 

Ok wait, I should back up...we all know I love travel and travel planning, but it wasn't until I was laid off that I really considered what it would take to get a job in the travel industry. My research revealed that the baseline industry certification is the CTA (Certified Travel Associate). There are other certifications, but they require you to actually work in the travel industry for at least a year. (And no, you don't have to be a CTA to work in this industry, but when you're trying to break in with no experience, it helps.)

My counselor in the Job Partners program asked me to define my job search goal so that any training assistance could be aligned to that goal. So I set a goal to try to find a role that leveraged my existing skills within the travel industry.

Now, I wasn't sure if the right job actually existed here in the Twin Cities...and I'm still definitely applying for jobs outside the travel industry...but I needed a dream so I dreamed one. 

Ok, so travel school. That dream allowed me to start this training course. It's all online with a proctored exam at the end. I'm learning everything from basic geography to deciphering all those codes on your airline tickets. Stuff lots of people would find totally boring and I. LOVE. IT. Like, I love it more than I thought I would. (Btw, did you know Venice is actually 118 islands? I'm full of fun facts these days.)

The 118 islands of Venice.

And the realization that I had - which makes this different than, say, pastry school - is that it's actually pretty easy to set-up your own travel agency. Sure, you have to find your own customers, but the cost of entry is low. 

No, I'm not here to announce my own travel agency (not yet, anyway), but I am here to say that I've discovered that I could really do this. Maybe not as my full-time source of income (not yet, anyway), but I could still do it. I could get paid to plan trips! I could write about my travel and actually market myself. I could learn everything about every place I ever wanted to know about. I could help people have life-changing experiences!

And I never would have known how attainable this tiny dream of mine actually was if I hadn't been laid off. Also, I never would have discovered that my hometown had so many companies that are affiliated with the travel industry. 

Which brings me to what is perhaps the most buried lede of all time...you know that goal that I set without knowing if such a job existed? It not only exists, but I'm interviewing for it! And maybe it's ill-advised to shout such things from the rooftop when you don't know if you'll get the job, but what I'm really shouting is I WANT THIS. I really want this. And even if I don't get it, I think it's pretty cool that I got this close. 

So yeah, 15 weeks. It seems like forever and five minutes all at once. But I'm so, so happy that it got me here! Where will I be 15 weeks from now? I do not know, but here's hoping that I'm even happier...and also collecting a paycheck. 

Must be Present to Win

The rebound gig is over and now that I'm officially re-entering unemployment (and feeling much happier about it this time), I figured I should revisit my 40 by 40 list, which seems to be perpetually stuck at having 15-16 things left on it. I don't know how that's possible, but it is.

Obviously I have to put all travel-related items on hold at the moment until a steady steam of income can be obtained...I'm saying that knowing full well that I intend to travel to LA this winter, but I'll save that for another post...when you hear the explanation, you'll agree that it meets the stringent exception criteria.

Ok, so removing travel items still leaves me with 10 things I could theoretically set my mind to accomplishing during my employment hiatus:

7. Write a rough draft of my book
17. Get another tattoo
18. Be debt free (excluding mortgage)
19. Make exercise part of my life
21. Win a contest
27. Wear a ball gown
30. Plan another treasure/scavenger hunt
34. Read “Don Quixote”
35. Write each one of my friends a letter saying what they mean to me
38. Learn to change a tire

What jumps out at you when you read that list? For me, it's #21 Win a contest, because that seems fun and like it won't require a major expense.

I should add that I have started #7 but I don't want to talk about it and I think it's possible that I've accomplished #19, but I'm not ready to call it yet. I also tried to buy "Don Quixote" at a bookstore in Ketchikan and interpreted the fact that they didn't have a copy as a sign that it wasn't time yet...ok, so back to winning a contest.

There was a debate about whether that time I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune counted as winning a contest because I had to make it through some type of vetting process to get that far, but I decided that it did not because, well...we did not make it on the show. Had we actually appeared on Wheel of Fortune maybe I would have said yes.

So how does one go about winning a contest? Well, first one must enter a contest. And since I've got less than 2 years, it seems like I should probably start entering many contests. People have asked me to qualify "contest" - like, could I just challenge my friend to a cake eating contest and be done? Sure, I suppose, except I think the spirit of #21 was that feeling of random luck that comes with entering something out of your control and coming up a winner. So, those are the vague guidelines I'm working with here.

Have you ever Googled "contest"? It's pretty amazing how many contests are underway at this very minute. So far today I've entered one at the Food Network and I'm considering another one where I have to make something out of apples... I now intend to devote time each week to finding new contests to enter until I win one...

My hope, of course, being that I stumble across something super interesting and/or amazing that leads me to discover something else interesting and/or amazing...because that's pretty much how both luck and the 40 by 40 list work...because if you try to do something interesting and/or amazing every day, that adds up to some interesting and/or amazing years and that ultimately means you're living an interesting life. And that's all I really want. Plus love, TV and cake.