Day in and day out the media portrays millennials as the most entitled generation to date. Of course asking for lower college debt, a living wage, and health care that covers therapy is just too much. “Back in the day” mental health wasn’t a necessity. (Those people were locked away in closets, like my great-aunt.)
As a mentally drained, emotionally exhausted, physically tired, “entitled” millennial brat, I sympathize with my fellow unemployed zombies. Like many others, I have written my fair share of cover letters and resumes, then sprinkled them with “please hire me” fairy dust. (To date I’ve applied to 40+ positions, paid and unpaid.)
With limited response from these applications I reached my breaking point. In the middle of a phone call with my mother I broke down and spilled my guts. (My neighbors know I’m a wreck.) I felt worthless. I felt like all the academic success and letters of praise meant nothing. I wanted to quit “adult-ing” and give up “life-ing”. (Yes millennials will add “-ing” to any normal activity to make it seem “trendy”.)
After crying my eyes out in my kitchen, I pulled myself together, washed my dishes and went back to looking for more dead-end jobs. I have a few emails all of which promise an interview but no job. But frankly the lack of response from this “workforce” (finger quotes) that all my teachers had promised would give me a job if I worked hard enough was starting to weigh on me. So, instead of responding to emails for jobs that I could care less about, I’m blogging. Maybe blogging isn’t truly dead and there is some supplemental income still available on the internet.
Many of my friends have also adopted blogging as a hobby and even career. Blogging allows the freedom and expression we all crave in our “dream job” without actually having to go to said job. There’s no set schedule or hours per week. Blogging in the only job where you can do as little or as much as you choose and not get fired.
Blogging is not for everyone (neither are dance challenges, but they go viral overnight as well). I was encouraged to blog before college. An IT manager at one of my high school internships told me to blog because it can serve as online portfolio to help you get “hired”. Businesses want to see (something other than words on a resume) of what you can offer them. But truly for me, blogging became a way for me to find a level of calm in the storm created by the stress of being unemployed. Blogging was a distraction tool for me at first but slowly evolved into a way for me to find the power to believe in myself again. The job market with all its fickleness and pickiness can make you feel dejected and down, unworthy and lost. But when you see your words turning into small paychecks here and there, you begin to find hope in yourself again. And that hope becomes abundant enough to tide you over until that official offer letter comes around (because it will).
Limitless opportunities that can exist behind the power of a click and a dream. Especially when you choose to hire you.
If you’re in a stuck place — find ways to utilize the internet to your advantage. Even if it’s not blogging, there are ways that this vast digital world can launch you into a future that you’ve never even thought of. Yes, you can apply for job that will pay the bills while you “side-hustle” through your dreams. But until you get that offer letter, be intentional with your gift and push your talent into the world.
You never know how the universe will respond.
Mode1
September 23, 2016 at 2:23 pm
This is exactly what I’m doing currently! I love blogging and hope to make somewhat a career out of it. It’s tough out here in the real world, so I have to feed my passion somehow even if it means I’m not getting paid.
imekulo.com