This is not a post about 2020 or last year, although I did have my own pain to deal with during those times. A global pandemic and a health scare are nothing to sneeze at though.
Before the late 2010s and the present day would see me living my best life, there was the early 2000s and The College Years.
This post is about March 2006, the beginning of my own personal “pain era”. I had been out of Slippery Rock a few months and I was still in my grace period for my student loans (which weren’t going to be a lot to pay back). My first “job” failed miserably as I lasted three weeks at Reese Teleservices but I tried again with Xentel.
It was a quiet few months where the Steelers got “one for the thumb” and I was embarking on my job search. I also applied at the new Target in North Huntingdon, which was getting ready to open in February, as well as Walmart. I was also making an attempt to apply for jobs in my field. I got a few calls but had little success so far.
But in March 2006, I was going to get a big wake-up call.
I was busy ramping up the job search when I got the news that my Great Grandma was put in a nursing home. I wasn’t driving at the time and my Dad started panicking with everything going on. It began to get very overwhelming. I needed to start driving immediately. Eventually I was hired by Xentel as I gave telemarketing one more chance. It would still be a while before I took the wheel, however.
While working at Xentel, I also applied at Kings Family Restaurant in Hempfield as they were looking to hire a Prep Cook. I aced the interview and was actually hired. I was very excited to start this job but Xentel wasn’t having any of it.
My biggest regret during this time was turning down this job offer to stay at Xentel. I was a lackluster salesperson who didn’t turn many sales and after a few months there, was let go; thus beginning my summer of unemployment. As I was taking civil service tests on top of looking for work, I began to feel entitled and would turn down menial work just to hold out for a better work. I thought my degree would save me but knowing what I know now, that’s not the case.
I’ll have a future blog post on my Summer of Discontent at a future date.
As Spring rolled on, I didn’t have the confidence to show myself or talk to anyone. I never returned voicemails either. I was so ashamed all because I had was a college graduate looking for work.
Back then, the College Years felt like the best years of my life. Now that graduation came and went and that they were over, I began to feel depressed and despaired.
I used to follow the YouTuber known as McJuggernuggets. You may remember the staged video where his dad shreds his video games with a lawn mower. Back in 2006, I felt the way that he would when his beloved Psycho Series ended in 2016. I went through the motions trying to find myself as my academic life came to an end and my real world life had yet to really take off. He tried to recreate the Psycho Series in the way I did the same recreating my past and college years.
If things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they did. Gram went into the hospital at the end of the month. She was at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville for a few weeks before she would be sent to Woodhaven Care Center, near the hospital. We spent time visiting her there before taking her home to our house, where she’d spend the summer. More on my jobless summer coming at a later date.
I spent đź’° đź’° đź’° on a suit for a job fair that was less than successful. I checked out companies that were looking to hire but none of them got back to me. My lack of work experience would be my undoing (unless I was looking for work in food service).
Give credit to 2006 for my downfall but the cracks began to show during the summer and into my last semester of college.
To Be Continued
Stylish 🍒 