Hello there everyone!
Well I've been waiting a long time to write this post, and now, finally, the wait has ended. I finally have a job!
I have been hired at Red Hen Bread as a barista. While this is not exactly the occupation I was hoping for when moving down to Oak Park in June, I am beyond grateful for this job! We needed this source of revenue like crazy!
After yesterday, my first day, I was excited, nervous, petrified, and lost with all the new experiences! It's going to take a lot learning for me to get to true proficiency at this new job. The training experience is difficult! But I think this is going to be fun.
Just a forewarning, I got a little carried away..... so this is a long posting!
So the real reason I wanted to write this post isn't so much to let everyone know that I finally have a job, but really more of what I have been trying to learn through this whole phase of unemployment! I say this because I believe God has been toying with my flimsy heart strings over these past 3 months and the only way I can justify having gone through this is to take the 3 months and use it as a time for self reflection.
I honestly believe I needed this time without a job to get ready for marriage. I don't know if I have fully discussed this with +Hannah, but I think I needed to not have a job for a reason. I obviously knew I wanted to get married, and I obviously knew I wanted to marry Hannah! But I have learned a lot about marriage by not having a job that I think would have made our first 3 months of marriage a lot harder if I had a job right away. I know to SO many of you reading this that what I'm about to say is a no brainer, but marriage takes A LOT of self sacrifice! Now to back myself up before everyone judges me, I knew this going into this commitment!!! But knowing it and actually experiencing it is very different! I'm sure when Hannah reads this she is going to laugh and think I'm exaggerating, but I've worked pretty hard while not employed to do things for her and set my wants aside. I've been the one cleaning the apartment, for the most part, she obviously does things too! I've done a lot of laundry. I've done a lot of cooking, even if its basic. I can't list everything I've done, but I can describe that I've felt many times thankful for being a full time husband! It's tough work fellas! It's not always easy to look forward to seeing your wife all day and then when you finally do you have to sit and listen to her cry and complain about PA school for an hour. But its easier when you haven't been doing anything yourself all day. I believe I needed this experience to get ready to be the same comforter even after coming home from work myself. Even after last night, I came home from my first long day of getting trained in and feeling like an idiot all day, but I still had to do the dishes and take out the garbage and carry something out to the car, because you know what, thats fair! Hannah worked all day too and made the food! But anyway, I needed to learn this. And perhaps the best way for me to learn how to live with Hannah was for me to only have Hannah to live with for these last 3 months. Maybe now I'm ready for a job. Being married to Hannah is incredible, but maybe in order for me to be an incredible husband back to her meant I had to solely be a husband and not do anything else. And if thats the case, I'm thankful that I've been able to do that.
Another lesson I think I can take from all of this is money management. I have to be honest, I've never had to worry about money. Even after moving out of my parents house, my job in the ER, even only part time (0.5), was enough for me to live off of easily and still save money. Now, on the other hand, I almost literally have no money. All my life's savings has been depleted getting married and living for 3 months without a job. And even now that I finally have a job, we're still going to struggle with the little money I'm making. Hannah is much better at managing money than I am, so I'm thankful for her, and I'm still learning. But this is all a life lesson! And even if it sucks, big time, maybe its for the best in the long run! At least I'm choosing to view it that way.
Lastly, I think I am now with this new job to learn a new lesson, one that is going to really be painful for me: humility. I love the medical field! It's incredible! If you don't, I don't understand you, and thats ok. But working in the ER for me was an awesome experience! I got to work with incredible people and learn SO much. But I'm not sure it was good for my ego. I know I was only a nurses assistant, but I took great pride in working in an ER. Not to mention in the same ER as my dad once worked in, in the same hospital my grandpa worked in. After working in the ER for 5 years and graduating from college, I felt like I was "lowering" myself when apply to Gap or a grocery store. So now that I finally have a job again, I need to be thankful for it, really thankful! A lot of people graduating from college are in the same boat I am! It's hard to describe, but I think I need to learn humility through this barista job. I'm not learning how to put in a chest tube anymore, but I am trying to learn how to make a mean espresso, and thats ok!
I believe I have learned a lot while without a job, even if I am unable to articulate it well enough for you as a reader to understand. I have to thank +Karina Biggers (Swanson) for sending me a link about a month ago to give me a reminder in life, especially on a day when I was really depressed. It was, to summarize, a podcast talking about God's wisdom. And to really summarize, what to remember was that God's wisdom entails the best possible results by the best possible means. Now, it has sucked not to have a job, or any money, or not have any close friends near by, or any family. But maybe thats all for the best possible outcome...... rereading over what I have already written in this post, I think I've had a lot to learn lately, and would I have learned it as well or at all if my life had gone the way I wanted it too? I think this goes for my future aspirations too. I really thought I wanted to go to medical school and get my M.D., but it took me bombing the MCAT twice to take a step back and see that maybe medical school is awesome, but I want to be a dentist. Life lessons are hard, and I think I need to go through sucky situations because I'm all the more stubborn! God really has to slap me in the face to teach me. I have to be eaten by the giant fish before I go to Nineveh! Maybe I have to be thrown into Château d'If before being rewarded. I believe God will give us situations in our lives that we cannot handle. But He has a plan and I guess we just have to deal with that, because evidentially it doesn't exactly line up with ours!
Now, aside from the biblical standpoint, perseverance is key. Our economy sucks big time, but you have to keep trying. Yes I previously worked in an ER for 5 years. Yes I graduated from college with degree in Cellular/Molecular Biology. Yes I minored in Philosophy. Yes I've done a years worth of undergraduate glucocorticoid research on mice. And yes, I'm now a barista. I really have to thank +Dave Schneider for encouraging me not too long ago. You really kept my head up.
And as for all my other friends, which the list would be huge to name off, I thank you all for your encouragement! And for anyone who is reading this who has been praying for me to get a job I thank you.
Please post your comments or questions below! I always enjoy hearing your feedback.
