With my recent unemployment, I’m returning to a blog post idea I had a few months ago. I wrote this idea down and just didn’t know how it fit, as it was during the time when I started to think more carefully about my health and getting older. Life happens, we all know this. Good things, bad things, and all the things in between. All of those things add up to make life what it is.

But if you think about it, life is just a series of reboots. You graduate from high school, you start over in college. You graduate from college and you’re an adult and things start over again. You start fresh. Maybe you get married or you have kids. Each life event changes who you are. When these happen you start walking down a new branch of the path that is your life.

For me, I’m at another one of these life reboots. I’m going to be finding a new job, something I’ve not had to do since 2012. Back then I was just a couple years out of Michigan State, and I had been working two jobs since graduation (A bit of freelance IT and Kroger). My first big job at an online history-related magazine was a big deal. I started as a freelancer and eventually worked my way up to an associate managing editor. I know I bitched about it a lot, but I loved that job. Now that it’s gone, and the future is a bit scary. But I’m looking at this as just the start of another adventure.

I’ve had a lot of people reach out with the kindest of words these last few weeks (except for one person who unsubscribed from my channel because he was sure I was going to become a fulltime YouTuber and had actually quit my job). Along with being sympathetic, most people also asked me if I’m going to be okay. The answer is yes. I’m not happy about any of this, of course, but I have enough money saved I can go two years without working if I have to (it won’t come to that), I have the YouTube side gig that will keep my funds from running out too fast, and I have friends and family to ensure I don’t get to down in the dumps. I’m also putting in new applications every day, though I don’t expect to hear anything back until January. The places I’m applying don’t do a lot of hiring this time of year. I’m also going to do some freelancing again while I job search. I haven’t done much on Upwork in years, so it will be interesting to see how AI has changed the copywriting gigs I used to use to supplament my income.

No matter what happens, I’m going to enjoy my trek down this new path. Your life is only what you make it. That’s something I’ve always known, so I’ll keep it in mind as I reboot my life yet again.