For many of us growing up, you go to school, maybe go to University and then the end goal is getting a job or for most a career. Something you love to do and will want to do everyday, until you are so old you finally get to just chill out the rest of your days. Sounds a bit morbid really. So what if you were intentionally unemployed for a while? What happens?
I've worked since I turned sixteen; I started out as a Saturday girl working in a store on the cash registers and then started working in retail and carried on with that for years, making my way through University. I've had a few other jobs and it's not to say that I didn't enjoy some of them (others I cried myself to sleep) but they weren't my true passion or career of choice shall we say. When I decided to disappear to the other side of the world for a year, a part of this was so that I could actually decide on what I liked to do with my life. What was I good at that I wanted to invest my time and effort in to? After three months abroad I still don't quite know the answer to that one, but funnily enough I do have a better idea already. So what's it like being unemployed? No where to go for those five days a week you should actually be working - how do you fill all of that time?
At first it made me super anxious being an unemployed bum. As I said I've worked since I was sixteen so that's almost a decade of constant employment (a decade - let's pretend that's not real). Even between jobs, I refused to take a week off because I didn't want to go too long without the paycheck. I would probably just end up sitting around the house bored, because all my friends were working, so whats the point?
Being in Australia I soon realised of course, that I wasn't going to be getting a paycheck each month so the money I had was the money I had. It was no longer a case of, I'll wait until I've been paid - I could either afford something or couldn't justify the money. Ah the backpacker life.
Now I do have a working visa and had planned to come over here and get a job if I found my funds to be getting a bit low - which I did. I got an amazing job working at a festival for a bit which topped up the money again. However, I didn't want to come over here and just work and work and work. Chances are I would be in a call centre, waiting tables or making coffee all day. If I wanted to do a job I hated, I could have quite easily stayed at home. So if I don't desperately need more money, I don't see the point.
Then I ended up with a sort of black hole feeling. I'm used to having the routine of getting up and having work five days a week which meant my time off was limited. Now I had all the time in the world and suddenly felt like I didn't know what life was for. What do you do when your main focus isn't just doing things between working? To begin with I felt like I was doing things to kill time, but soon realised I had another four months in Brisbane, where I would have to 'kill time'. Slowly as the days went on, I figured out rather quickly that I could do anything I wanted and I didn't have to feel guilty for doing it! There's this sort of idea that you are supposed to make the most of your time and be doing something extremely productive with it. Reading a book all day? That's not a productive use of your time at all. This was my time to get back to being me after so long of adjusting myself to please others and making decisions based on what they perceived as the right thing to do. I was free!
As the months have rolled in and I'm down to just over two months left in this wonderful city, I have loved being unemployed and still do. My life has completely taken this turn where I've learned that I can make bigger goals for myself and if there is something I'm interested in - then do it. I'll be working at another festival next month, I've been volunteering with a festival this month! I was in the headline show for the BrisFest, I'm helping out at some charity walks and going on hikes and reading endless amounts of books. I'm doing things that I'm interested in and even taking the time to learn how to write again. I've really slacked in my main interest in life - writing. Ever since I was tiny I always wrote the longest or most descriptive stories in class. I enjoyed it and carried on doing it all the way to University where I studied play writing. After graduating though I let adult life carry me forward on a journey I wasn't sure I wanted to go on.
When you don't have a job, you don't have the excuse of no time or too tired. It's all about you and what you want to do with your time and effort, so all of a sudden you realise that there's so many things you do want to do in life. It's a strange thing that makes you get inside of your own head when you do have so much time, but honestly it's been worth it. I've fought some demons along the way and now I feel like I'm more sure of myself and no longer afraid of 'wasting my time'. I'm doing what I love to do and that's all that truly matters.
I've worked since I turned sixteen; I started out as a Saturday girl working in a store on the cash registers and then started working in retail and carried on with that for years, making my way through University. I've had a few other jobs and it's not to say that I didn't enjoy some of them (others I cried myself to sleep) but they weren't my true passion or career of choice shall we say. When I decided to disappear to the other side of the world for a year, a part of this was so that I could actually decide on what I liked to do with my life. What was I good at that I wanted to invest my time and effort in to? After three months abroad I still don't quite know the answer to that one, but funnily enough I do have a better idea already. So what's it like being unemployed? No where to go for those five days a week you should actually be working - how do you fill all of that time?
At first it made me super anxious being an unemployed bum. As I said I've worked since I was sixteen so that's almost a decade of constant employment (a decade - let's pretend that's not real). Even between jobs, I refused to take a week off because I didn't want to go too long without the paycheck. I would probably just end up sitting around the house bored, because all my friends were working, so whats the point?
Being in Australia I soon realised of course, that I wasn't going to be getting a paycheck each month so the money I had was the money I had. It was no longer a case of, I'll wait until I've been paid - I could either afford something or couldn't justify the money. Ah the backpacker life.
Now I do have a working visa and had planned to come over here and get a job if I found my funds to be getting a bit low - which I did. I got an amazing job working at a festival for a bit which topped up the money again. However, I didn't want to come over here and just work and work and work. Chances are I would be in a call centre, waiting tables or making coffee all day. If I wanted to do a job I hated, I could have quite easily stayed at home. So if I don't desperately need more money, I don't see the point.
Then I ended up with a sort of black hole feeling. I'm used to having the routine of getting up and having work five days a week which meant my time off was limited. Now I had all the time in the world and suddenly felt like I didn't know what life was for. What do you do when your main focus isn't just doing things between working? To begin with I felt like I was doing things to kill time, but soon realised I had another four months in Brisbane, where I would have to 'kill time'. Slowly as the days went on, I figured out rather quickly that I could do anything I wanted and I didn't have to feel guilty for doing it! There's this sort of idea that you are supposed to make the most of your time and be doing something extremely productive with it. Reading a book all day? That's not a productive use of your time at all. This was my time to get back to being me after so long of adjusting myself to please others and making decisions based on what they perceived as the right thing to do. I was free!
As the months have rolled in and I'm down to just over two months left in this wonderful city, I have loved being unemployed and still do. My life has completely taken this turn where I've learned that I can make bigger goals for myself and if there is something I'm interested in - then do it. I'll be working at another festival next month, I've been volunteering with a festival this month! I was in the headline show for the BrisFest, I'm helping out at some charity walks and going on hikes and reading endless amounts of books. I'm doing things that I'm interested in and even taking the time to learn how to write again. I've really slacked in my main interest in life - writing. Ever since I was tiny I always wrote the longest or most descriptive stories in class. I enjoyed it and carried on doing it all the way to University where I studied play writing. After graduating though I let adult life carry me forward on a journey I wasn't sure I wanted to go on.
When you don't have a job, you don't have the excuse of no time or too tired. It's all about you and what you want to do with your time and effort, so all of a sudden you realise that there's so many things you do want to do in life. It's a strange thing that makes you get inside of your own head when you do have so much time, but honestly it's been worth it. I've fought some demons along the way and now I feel like I'm more sure of myself and no longer afraid of 'wasting my time'. I'm doing what I love to do and that's all that truly matters.
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