Clarification

Okay, guys.  Yes, I’m quitting my job and I don’t have another job lined up.  But can you take a breather from SHITTING ON MY DREAMS while I explain this?

I started working here in 2010, when the economy was at its absolute WORST.  Unemployment was at its peak.  And, yeah, I didn’t find a job via my extremely half-assed attempts on Craigslist (I seriously applied for like, five jobs, ha ha, good times), so I signed up for a temp agency.

That temp agency was BLOWN AWAY by my ability to read and write and type and not be an idiot when speaking to people.  So much so that I had a job–THIS job–within 24 hours of signing up.

Now, when this job decided to keep me, they forgot to inform the temp agency.  Without me even calling them for more work, they sent me an e-mail a few days before my contract was up (or so they thought) with another job offer.  A temp-to-hire receptionist gig that would have made me more money than the job I’d just gotten.

My brother used this agency to move from here to Colorado with approximately the same work experience I have now, and he also did that shit during a fucking TERRIBLE time in the economy.  He was almost ALWAYS employed, because he’s fucking employable.  And so am I.

I have no standards for what I do, except "not this" and "not retail."  I’ll be fine.  I’ll be FINE, so please stop blowing this out of proportion, okay?  I’m quitting my low-paying job to find another low-paying job.  I didn’t adopt three children and buy a Mercedes, here.

I make $13.80 an hour.  I manage to live on my own in a 700 square foot, 1-bedroom apartment.  I eat out several times a week and spend a lot of money on weed and alcohol.  And cigarettes.  Christ I’m healthy.  I could make 10 bucks an hour and still afford my rent, phone bill, and groceries.  I’d just have to stop going out drinking and eating all the time.  That’s it!

I also have a license to serve alcohol.  I can, as a backup plan, be a part-time bartender.  It doesn’t take much to get hired ’round these parts, as a woman who hasn’t been mauled by bears.

And if ALL else fails?  Retail.  I’ve got lots of experience and I’m overqualified and I can live on minimum wage.  I am NOT going to die in a gutter because I didn’t find a job before quitting this one.  I’m fine.  EVERYTHING IS FINE.

And if that’s not enough–my brother went back to temping through this agency when he quit his job and started school.  He says the ONLY reason he wasn’t constantly working through them is because they only had a shitload of full-time jobs, and he wasn’t looking for full-time.

You see?  They were like, "Lol sorry, we need you to work MORE HOURS than you’re willing, because we have so many full-time positions to hire for!"

I think people hear so much shit about the economy being terrible that they just assume it’s physically impossible to find a job, or that taking a risk like this is akin to signing your own death warrant.  But most people who talk about how bad it is already have jobs and haven’t tried to look.  Or if they have, they’re looking within a particular field and have very specific requirements of what they want from a job, and when they can’t find that, they’re like, "THE ECONOMY, FUUUUCK."  And it’s true!  It IS hard to find a job you want right now.  But I don’t care.  If you lower your standards, you will never starve.  I never had any standards, therefore I will not starve.

I know you’re trying to look out for my best interests, here, but I feel like people are so blinded by what they hear on the news about our economy that they panic, and I don’t need panic right now.  Panic is bad for me, and also entirely unnecessary.

I also think a part of it is that I grew up super poor.  My dad drove a truck, and wound up getting a head injury, so he was bouncing from job to job for a long time.  But every time he quit/got laid off/fired, he was always employed within a couple weeks.  Because he didn’t care what he was doing, as long as he was making enough money for us to survive.  Ya know?  I have no problem with doing what I have to do to get by.  I can do hard jobs and make hard choices.  I’m making a choice right now, and it’s worth the risk.

That’s all!