Losing helps you focus

After a weekend of mulling over my options, I started looking for work again in the classifieds. According to the Times, unemployment rates have declined this past month. A pity that the offers I saw in the paper weren't really looking for an Electrical Engineer.

The briefest flash of thought that I would have to move to another part of the country to find work crossed my mind and was immediately squashed. I couldn't imagine anywhere else I would want to live, despite my travels as a field technician in one of my previous work "experiences". Sounds silly, but that is where the reality lies.

I went to class today, and bumped into a friend and fellow student that works at the job I recently stopped working at. He told me how surprised he was that I had just left in the middle of the day last week. I told him that when they let me go, I wasn't in a mood to say goodbye to anybody.

As we continued to converse, he asked me if I knew why I was let go. I told him what my suspicions were. I gave him my reasons to back those suspicions. By this point, I had largely gotten over my disappointment over another opportunity that wasn't, so I wasn't even angry.

I then observed that I had only worked there a mere ten weeks, and hadn't developed an attachment enough to feel even slighted. He had a chuckle over this and told me that he had done things similar but hadn't gotten the same treatment I received. Which confirmed my suspicions about what I had been thinking.

He asked me if I had worked any place for less time. It took me a long time to think of another job where I stayed for less time, and that was a summer job I had when I was sixteen. That one only lasted a month. I simply didn't want to spend my summer confined to a desk.

It's just such a surprise to me that, despite the number of different positions that I have held, there have been so few that I have been working for such short periods of time. What's more interesting to me is the fact that I learned so much during that short period of time.

I think that it also helped focus me on what I want to be doing for my future. And no, it isn't to become a photographer. Though that might become a much more serious side job that will supplement my income. Imagine that, losing this job helped me gain more focus in my life.