Compared to most people, Sophia Ferrel, 32, sounds downright cheery about being unemployed:
I lost my job in Sept; I worked for a property developer in Seattle (yes, I know, I know…but a very cool, small, sustainable, original, in-city, in-fill, modern developer). My boss actually cried a little when he laid me off; because he didn’t have me to make his daily lattes and to do all his filing. I promptly went to Argentina for two weeks.
After the boredom/transition time wore off and I realized I could sleep in late, shower at 4 and hang out at coffee shops all day, and basically do whateverthefuck I wanted, I started having a lot of fun. Looking for jobs, as required to get my unemployment check, sucks. But the free time I have to climb, hang out with friends, plan parties, wander the Seattle parks system with my dog… well, it’s wonderful. It is like being a socialite without the money, or a stay at home mom without the kid. Granted I would prefer to have had some savings and be wandering the world, but here i am in Seattle, wandering its coffee shops.
The longer I stay outside the 9-5 job world, the less I want to go back into it. I have been brainstorming business ideas, helping my roommate with his amazing website he is creating for volunteers, fishing through all my friends for interesting job leads and day-dreaming about winning the lottery. Health insurance would be nice, though. And my unemployment is going to run out sometime. And they day might come when I actually hear back from one of these jobs I am always applying for. The exciting thing about the lack of jobs is the creative ideas I am having to come up with. That part is really exciting and my other friends who are laid off are also thinking of all these new ways to make money. In some ways, I feel like it is going to flush out all the crap that we didn’t need and force people to come up with creative, necessary products and businesses. At least, that is what I hope.
Sophia’s e-mail was so unusual, in the context of all the other notes I’ve been receiving, that I wrote back to her and asked:
How do you manage to be so mellow and optimistic about unemployment? (Awesome disposition?)
She replied:
It is a difficult question for me to answer, yours; how I remain optimistic. Because it does not come from my massive savings; I like your assumption that it must come from my awesome disposition (correct).
I am both worried and stressed and yet strangely unconcerned about being unemployed. The worry starts with my perfected resume, my glowing letters of recommendation and my constant applications to many companies, yet the complete and utter lack of response from any company. Combine this with my non-existent savings, my utter lack of health insurance and the daily lay offs in the paper, and I do become concerned. Money is a constant stress for me. Unemployment provides me with $409 a week. I am lucky enough that my living expenses are low but my bills are huge and I am precariously perched on my current financial ledge. I have $345 dollars in savings and no back-up plan besides an almost already maxed out credit card. That and begging.
Money has tightened the noose on my social life and restricted my usual indulgent activities; recently I had to ask my mother to buy me tires for my car, and my friends frequently pick up my tab. I am going to be buying drinks for months when I get a job.
My world-view and personality, however, don’t allow me to be as worried about the situation as I probably should be. I also have everything going for me: I am young, white, educated and live in a city. I have no dependents, no car payments, a tiny mortgage and friends and family. If unemployment runs out ($5,000 left….) before I get a job, I hope I can get a job at a coffee shop or something similar to pay the bills while I look for different work.
Also, we have Obama as president. Repeat daily.
I am optimistic because I just very simply believe that everything that happens in my life, bad as it may seem, will somehow turn into to something good. Unless I need to go to the hospital and they take away my house to pay for the medical bills, I suppose then I may sing a different tune. Probably a sad country song. Seriously.
I think that part of this optimism comes from how I grew up (on a tiny San Juan Island, Guemes Island). My family was incredibly poor and I know very acutely what it is like to have nothing. I know that the life I have now is amazing and short and if I don’t have fun with this opportunity to not be working, and just worry about not working, then I am wasting my time. This is my first adult opportunity to reflect /plan / slow my life down… I cook now. Probably every day. And look up recipes and read about food and think about food and shop at farmers markets and dig up beds in my yard and cook some more. (This is an astounding change for me.) It’s a good thing I love coffee because I now spend a lot of time at cafes, looking for jobs on my laptop. I am happy. I am stressed. I am worried. I am carefree. If I were your relationship status on Facebook, I would be: It’s Complicated.
Not having a job is frustrating, scary, and for me, a financial burden. It helps that I am not alone in my search. It helps greatly, in fact, to meet other intelligent peers who also are out of work. Some of us meet and look online together during the week, which gives some structure to my days. And it doesn’t seem as scary or as lonely to know that there are so many others in this same pool. It gives me hope that we have power in our hopelessness; because we are large we can’t be ignored.
Have an unemployment story to share? Write to jobless@thestranger.com.
Bless you, Sophia! Yours is a wonderful change from some of the justifiably depressing responses lately. Best of luck to you!
Good for her…enjoy the moment. But its gonna get ugly when reality kicks in her front door an demands the rent.
Sophia, before all of the nasty comments start up, I want to commend you for keeping such a great attitude. I’m in a similar boat and have been up and down in my attitude, with recent forecasts bringing me down-er. I need to remind myself of the good parts of this downturn – time with my sweetheart, cooking great cheap meals, and the freedom to read as many books as I like. Thanks Sophia.
Any stay-at-home parent knows that it’s a TON OF WORK, so I find that analogy to be a bit off. 🙂
Six months from now she’ll be singing a different tune. 8 months from now she’ll be begging to go back to the 9 to 5. A year from now she’ll wish she could afford a gun to blow her cheery little brains out.
#5, yes, if she doesn’t have a job a year from now she’ll be stressed and worried about money. But, she’s actively looking for a job right now and is just embracing what she has- time off to enjoy!
Good for you for being so positive!
Hey, Sophia — call me!
@6
I was Sophia once, and it took over a year to get back to work and on track. And that was before the current climate. Just sayin’. Toodles!
Getting laid off from my lame 9-5 job was the best thing that ever happened to me. I spent the next year figuring out what I really wanted to do (writing). I became a freelance writer and never looked back, and that was ten years ago! Sure, there have been tight months, but having more freedom (and free time) was worth having less money for sure. People get stuck thinking you have to work these dumb office jobs all your life–there are other ways to make a living. Go for it Sophia!
I read that Shackleton’s crew were quite content and cheerful with their lives when they had to abandon the Endurance and camp out on the ice floes. Just shows how a good attitude can make any situation better.
My experience of being unemployed most of last year was like being an eastern european pensioner, or how I’d imagine it to be.
I’m sure with an attitude like that, Sophia will find a job much more quickly than all the sad sacks. People want to hire people they like.
@12: That and she is cute. I’ve always liked to hire cute people.
I always love the manic part. You know, before the depression.
I agree with 12. Jobs are boring. Those of us who don’t have them should spend less time trying to get a new one and more time trying to figure out how to live a full and productive life without one. Our jobs define us way too often anyway. Far too much of our discussion about this economic rough patch has been centered around how to get people back into the jobs they’ve lost. Am I the only one who thinks maybe most of us have been working too much in the first place? Let’s take some of that time we’ve been spending at our crappy offices and use it to grow our own food, or repair something that’s broken in our house that we might have simply replaced before, or set up a child-care co-op when we might have paid for a nanny before. Be creative, people! There’s more than one way to support yourself and your family.
Everyone knows this, but it’s true: you either have money or time. It’s great when you know you’re going to have a chunk of time and you can explore that.
“Like being a socialite without the money.” 🙂
Or a college student without the courses.
I totally embrace this concept 12! I wish Sophia the best of luck in finding a job she loves as well!
As for myself, I’d feel much more content with this attitude if I was being laid off in a good economy rather than a recesssion/ depression. In a good economy I would at least know that I could get a crap job somewhere just to pay the bills if my unemployment ran out.
Still though, its refreshing to see such optimism! 🙂
Wow, I think I’m smitten with Sophia. What’s a beautiful attitude. I hope I run into you at Trader Joes–drinks will be on me.
@15: Right on.
My similar antecdote: I quit my well-paying office job 2 years ago, before the current economic situation, because I hated spending all my time and energy in a cubicle. I did some volunteer gigs, random projects I never had time for, and traveled around the world for 5 months. (Note: The total spent during those 5 months was the same amount I would have spent staying here in Seattle on rent, bills, etc. Even with plane tickets, Asia is cheap, and you’ll never be able to take a month+ vacation once you get another FT job).
I’m lucky to have the savings from my old job, and I live simply and cheaply. I know my savings will run out at some point, but I’ve been able to postpone that day by lucking into some temporary gigs that I find far more rewarding than my previous job, which I may not be able to get again due to the economy anyway.
With the exception of a two-month period, I’ve worked almost 20 straight years at 3 different companies in two cities.
Best two months of my life. You rock Sophia.
Agreed, Sophia rocks.
No, call me.
You have my cat’s life. Everytime I leave for work I tell my cat I’d like her life for a week. Awesome.
Dear Sophia:
I hope your parents don’t run out of money.
its easy not to be worried when so many others are in the same boat.
Oh levide, I wish you’d have the guts to not hide behind your anonymity.
Sophia…keep your chin up kid. Circumstances may become a bit less rosey in the future but with your disposition, you’ll make the best of it.
Attitude really is everything and she’s got that in spades. Why not enjoy the ride instead of screaming “I WANT OFF!?”- more power to her.
I’m grateful for my jobs but damn if I don’t want a little of what she’s got going on.
Being someone who sees you every day, I’d observed a subtle and good change come over you in recent months. You have some very good points. It’s time our working lives led to something. The system must be retooled anyway.
Well……..enjoy what you can, when you can do it. Granted, your a Northerner, which automatically means you are messed up (Repeat Daily: Manic before Depressive), but with some luck, you will come out alright, young kids like you are pliable, and bounce back……usually.
Really, it isn’t something you can fix UNTIL you get another job.
Therefore, enjoy your time until your next job. Easy. Simple. And true.
On the downside, I ran out of my UI, and unlike you, live in a state long forgotten by the Federali Union (i.e., Northerners), so most likely will be pursuing highway robbery, and black market potentials.
But at least you and I, my slow, o’ so slow friend, will be happy while Rome doth burn! DO you play fiddle?