Unemployment Has Made Me a Better Person
Here’s how I went from experiencing dread to relaxation.
After I quit my job a couple months ago, several changes kicked in:
- I had all the time in the world to think about whatever I wanted.
- I dreaded what people would think of me.
- Our income as a couple got slashed by more than half. For the first time in my life, I no longer had health insurance.
Before I quit, I absolutely and definitely needed some time off. I was exhausted.
For months, I had been jealous of the characters in Jane Austen novels whose lives are so slow that they can visit people for several months at a time.
In my head, I was making wild calculations about how much longer I would have to suffer at work. How much longer before I could take a couple months of maternity leave? I was counting the years and months until our mortgage will be paid off. In my mind, paying off the mortgage meant freedom from suffering at work.
After I quit, I was afraid of judgments.
I dreaded going to grocery stores in the middle of the day. People would *know* that I was unemployed. They would stare. They would judge. I didn’t want them to think poorly of me.
