Hey tumblr. Let’s try this again.
It’s been two years since I’ve done anything on tumblr. Two. Years. And some number of months, probably. How do I know? I just had to update my age.
In those two years, as you can imagine, a lot has happened. In a nutshell:
I moved out of my parents house and cross country to Nashville, Tenn.
I finally live in the same state as my long-term boyfriend.
I’ve looked down the barrel of two layoffs, in one year.
While I inch closer to hitting the big 3-0, in many ways I still feel like a child. I’m still not ready to do this adulting thing, even after living on my own and paying rent and bills each month. I still get anxiety over making phone calls or going anywhere that isn’t the grocery store alone. I still don’t know how to make friends outside of being stuck in the same room together for some amount of time. I’m still obsessed with Hello Kitty.
Basically, I haven’t changed much. You didn’t miss anything.
After repeatedly thinking, “I should blog more often,” while in the shower, or driving, or daydreaming at work, I’m finally doing it. I’m writing a blog post. I’m using this for what I intended it to be however many years ago I started it.
“It’ll be cathartic,” I’ve thought. “I’ll brush off my writing skills.” I’ll need those soon.
I moved to Nashville nearly a year ago, when I found out my job as a newspaper designer was no longer going to be housed in my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. There’s actually an anecdote that goes with that story, but I’ll refrain.
This week, my coworkers and I found out that the current design hub we work for is being shuttered and all of our work is being absorbed by the three remaining hubs. There used to be five, but the top dogs in the company decided to close another hub a few months ago.
So, here I am, with another predetermined date of unemployment. Here I am, feeling like another unemployed millennial, overqualified for entry level jobs and under-qualified for everything else. I’m lucky; I have five years of experience - in a dying industry, but it’s experience nevertheless.
So, here I am again, tumblr, starting a blog.
For all my faults, and there’s quite a few, there’s at least one thing I excel at: Starting things. My whole life has been a series of starting something, some project, some book, and never reaching completion. Those Harry Potter fanfics? They’re sitting in a journal, gathering dust, only four chapters in. Lord of the Rings? I’m stuck on a chapter in Return of the King, which is also gathering dust on some shelf (13-year-old me just couldn’t finish the last book). Surely, you’d think I could finish something like a coloring book page. Nope. If you flip through, you’ll find pages with spots of color, but nothing ever fully filled in.
I work better with a deadline. Give me a deadline, and I’ll meet it. That’s why I flourish in my current role: I have daily deadlines. The paper has to go out, and I’ve got to get it ready for the printer, so it can go on the trucks, so that it finds its way to a doorstep, rack or birdcage bottom.
Newspaper is a dying industry. I know this, every print journalist knows this, the industry execs know this, your neighborhood Joe knows this. Many obstacles face the media right now, but that’s another topic for another post (hold me to that). With my impending unemployment looming, I’ve started brainstorming ideal careers, just in case this whole journalist thing doesn’t pan out.
Become a social media star. Only problems? I can’t put on makeup that well, I don’t have a special talent, I lack a momager, I’m not funny on purpose... The list goes on.
Bake boozy cupcakes. Except, that costs money, and I’m a starving journalist/college grad with student loans breathing down my neck.
Start a food truck. I’d specialize in lumpia, but see above for reasons why this won’t fly.
Go back to school. I could pursue a Master’s degree in journalism or try my hand at a formal graphic design education. But then again, do I really want more student debt?
Marry rich. But then I’d have to break up with the love of my life, so, no.
And those are just the legal things I’ve thought about. Not that I’d seriously consider doing anything illegal, but can you blame a girl for thinking? And thinking is what brought me back here.
So, hello, tumblr. It’s been a while; let’s try this again.
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