#MyPath Challenge Day 4

There are no classes in life for beginners; right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.

  – Rainer Maria Rilke

So many things have happened, especially in the last year, that I find it difficult to just pick one thing as the most difficult. But, for the purposes of this challenge, I will have to say that the most difficult thing I’ve had to face was unemployment.

I resigned from a job I had for three and a half years with no plans, no back-up, and no new job waiting. I finally just had enough that I decided right there and then to submit my resignation letter.

So, I did. And it was both fun and scary at the same time.

I spent the first month after my resignation in a state of elation. It felt just like summer vacation while I was still at school. I woke up late, slept late, read books the whole day, stuff like that.

The downside of it was that I wasn’t earning anything. At all. I started panicking when I realized after the fourth month that my savings were being depleted. So I moved my ass and decided to look for a freelance job.

I was lucky to have found a lot of freelance jobs to keep the wolf far enough from my door but still close enough to keep me worried.  My days are filled with writing papers and articles, talking to people about life insurance or project flows, or just reconnecting with people I care about.

I spent almost a whole year trying to make it work. But as days went by, coupled with a few more events that occurred last year, things got really, really difficult. And yes, really, really boring. So I decided to go back to the (regular) workforce and, the universe is apparently working with me, because I was able to find a new job almost immediately.

I would like to say that I handled my challenges using proper and detailed planning but that wouldn’t be entirely true. Sometimes, things just come at the right time. You just have to bear through all the difficulties, do everything you can to try to get through it, and hope for the best.

There are no short cuts to life. There is no manual. No two people have the same life so we can’t just do what other people did. We just have to be smart to know when to plan things and when to just follow our guts and wing it.