I knew it would still be a while
before my life reached what most normal people would consider stable, but to me
everything seemed rock solid. I would have a few months of cheap rent where I
could live on a budget, pay off some debt, and buy a car while I figured out a
way to move up in the industry.
As luck would have it, later that
week I found out the staff wasn’t getting cut and I still didn’t have a full
time job. It was a pretty big slap in the face for my hopes of finding stability
in Raleigh. I could stay afloat for a while as long as I was getting decent
hours, but with no certainty about how much I could work it wasn’t a very
comfortable position. At least the new
neighborhood had more to offer in terms of jobs I could walk to. I quickly
learned that that didn’t make a difference with school out and no customers or
job openings at any of the businesses. No one would be hiring at all for a
couple months. It was only days earlier
that I once again felt like I had the game of life bent over with its cheeks
spread, and now it felt like I was the one with my jaws clenched on the pillow.
I got an email from a girl I worked
with in Panama City Beach. She was organizing an activation in Myrtle Beach and
wanted to put me up in a beach house for two weeks to work it. I was still
loaning Dan money and having enough money for just food and rent was becoming a
concern. I was going a little bit crazy from passing most of my days staring at
the blank walls of my near empty apartment while not having the money to do
much else.
I started to realize how people
that hated their jobs could still be so happy with their lives. When you dread
the way you spend your work day, you’re happy the moment you leave the office
just because you’re not at your miserable job. When your job is paying you to
go to the places you used to go on your days off, relaxing loses all enjoyment
and turns into boredom and feelings of underachievement. My sanity was relying
on me getting back to working full time almost as much as my bank account was. At this point in my life I had gotten pretty good at finding ways to
survive in financial situations that would make most people run home to their
mothers. I could stretch the money I would make in Myrtle Beach until I found
another job.
It was the day before we left for Myrtle Beach
that Dan had worked at a conference for a bunch of our company’s executives. He was pulled aside by a manager from
Charlotte and she told him she heard we did great work in Panama City and that
we weren’t getting the hours we wanted in Raleigh. She asked if anything was
holding him back and offered him a job as a manager in Charlotte. He would be
moving there soon after we got back from Myrtle Beach. I knew Dan was never as
into Raleigh as me and I was happy that he got the promotion we were both
looking for, but I also knew suddenly being out of a car would pose a problem.
Raleigh is a sprawling city with absolutely hopeless public transportation. I
had lived in plenty of places where getting by without a car was
completely manageable, but this wasn’t one of them.
A couple days later my boss called
me and told me that with Dan gone, I would be promoted and working full time in
Raleigh. It sucked that my hetero-travel mate would be leaving my side, but I
had been spending most of my time with a girl anyways and I would be getting
an unexpected promotion and the full time work that I had moved there for to
begin with. Between a bike, the company car, and rides from my coworkers, I
would be able to get around for the time being. I would be working enough to
buy a car and I could save up enough money to sign another lease once the
summer was over. The plan was in place and this time it had to be reliable…. It
just had to.
I spent the next two weeks working
at the beaches and resorts at Myrtle Beach. I got back and
waited for that email confirming that Dan had the promotion in Charlotte and I
would get mine in Raleigh. We waited…….and waited……and waited…….
"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens". - Epictetus
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