The club gets ever larger

good luck, my friend. i hope you prepared yourself.

 

Good point, Tom. But I have follow-up question:

How does one prepare her/his self to leave the only career they've ever wanted? I'm not being a smart-ass, I am really looking for an answer here.

 

You start looking for other career paths you think you might like, maybe not as much, but enough to not go postal. I'm lucky in a sense that there have always been about nine or 10 career paths I've suspected I'd be happy in.

 

granny, you're money ... never a "wise guy."

i guess preparing yourself for the future means networking (again, even if you haven't for 10 years, only this time with a different field in mind). IDing a career path you want to folo, updating your resume ... it might take three versions for whichever path you wish to folo and whichever one opens first, and knowing exactly what to do when you have to apply for unemployment.

we can do more than just sit here like metal ducks with targets on backsides.

 

The damn thing is, this ain't a career anymore.

These days, it's just a factory job, pushing out the widgets until you, too, get called into the office and told that you are gone.

I miss my damn fun career.

 

It's not about another job or another career. And I'm not trying to threadjack, so if I am, direct me to the proper place.

It's about riding the El, reading the paper on the way to high school every morning and knowing that, fuck yeah, I wanna be a sarcastic asshole writing about sports. And I want to be this good. And knowing how you had to start out -- as a cub reporter -- and then have enough sand to ask your sports editor after a year or so if you could write a column. Then, finally, you're a sports editor and you can write a column if you damned well please. So the business decides to go all pipes and tubes on us and the internets are the place to be. And, finally, your boss says, "Wanna be our online editor?" And you reply, "Can I keep me my sports column?" and he says, "Shit, we want you to have a sports blog too. Want it?"

And you go home, smile and drink that beer. Fuck yeah. Oh, bully for you, it's not a major metro. But the scope and size of the event never mattered. You're a columnist, now. That's the dream, right? That's the end game? Correct?

Then, poof, it's gone.

That's what I want to know how to prepare for.

 

I'm sorry VC. I hope you land, man.

 

sounds more familiar than i care to admit. but, the advice is the same. if you don't get picked up by yahoo or aol or whateverfuckingsite, you're still sitting in the same seat.

that sucks, but i don't see a lot of wiggle room.

 

Damn, I'm sorry, VC.

 

So sorry to hear it, VC. FWIW (knowing it doesn't mean much) but it's an increasingly distinguished club. Sadly.

 

Damn, man. I'm sorry to hear that. All the best, VC.

 

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck to you.