Gawker's Unemployment Stories

These are usually pretty interesting, and the first one this month is from an ex-sportswriter. It does have a happy ending.

http://gawker.com/5992314/unemployment-stories-vol-32-you-are-slowly-erased-from-the-lives-of-your-friends

 

That series is a good idea.

I just want to say that this is not a dying industry. Newspapers will cease eventually but people still want news and information and celebrity gossip.

 

These are sad. I hope that "The Worst Decision of my Life" has someone he/she can talk to. Mentioning suicide twice in that piece is a pretty big cry for help. I was out of work once for only a couple weeks and it drove me crazy. Can't imagine what a couple of years would feel like. Good luck to anyone going through that.

 

Yikes ... some of these stories have me seriously questioning the idea of quitting newspapers without having something lined up.

 

The sportswriter part about not seeing other people is a huge deal. When I left, my situation was different because I had my own family, and between school and other activities I would see people. But there was a big loss of identity there. I started meeting some guys for breakfast every Saturday morning, which is a total old-guy thing but is very necessary for me to be out there communicating with actual people about actual grown-up things.

 

Well, that was disheartening to read. Silver lining I guess is I'm just a freelancer.

That being said, I have my doubts I'll make a career out of sports writing and am worrying myself silly on how to pay bills. I'm 24 with a degree in English and I feel as if my life is going nowhere compared to a lot of people I went to college with. I'm trying to figure out of there's a good job I can take locally that provides me enough time to freelance to my heart's content.