Continuing on with my story. I had been laid off after twenty-two years of working for Barnes and
Noble. What a strange feeling...I was really glad that I had a severance package so that I would not have to depend on unemployment to pay all my bills. The first few days were really weird, I did not have to get up at 5am anymore. I spent the first week signing up for unemployment and filling out various papers for my severance.
My Mom came out to see me the first week of February. It really helped to take my mind off the situation I was in. I don't think that it had really sunk in yet that I was really unemployed. After she left I began to think about what I wanted to do as a job. The book industry was going through so many changes with the rise of ebooks so that was not really an option for me. I was going to have to reinvent myself and figure out a new career. I updated my resume and put it on every job site I could find, but I did not really know what I wanted to do at this point. How would my skills translate to a new career? I was going to do some research and figure out the best direction for me to take.
In the meantime, I had been planning on opening a Facebook store for the jewelry I had been creating. I used to make jewelry when I was in my 20s, but life has a way of pushing things like that off to the side. In October I had been looking at the magazine section at Barnes & Noble for fall ideas. I love fall, it is my favorite season and I loved to look at the magazines for fun ideas. While I was perusing the magazines, I saw a beautiful bracelet on the cover of Step by Step Wire Jewelry. After looking through the magazine, I decided to buy it and give jewelry making another try. I loved it! I began to play around making jewelry and I took some pictures to show my friends on Facebook.
It was exciting to run my own business. It was also a lot of work. I really enjoy it, it helps me to focus, one of the side effects of having chemotherapy is something called chemobrain.
Chemo brain is a common term used by cancer survivors to describe thinking and memory problems that can occur after cancer treatment. Chemo brain can also be called chemo fog, cognitive changes or cognitive dysfunction. Mayo Clinic
My memory did not work as well as it used to and making jewelry helps me to train my brain to focus on something specific. I feel that it has really helped me to keep my brain functioning at a close to normal level. I do still have memory issues, but I have just learned to write everything down so I don't forget. I have pads full of lists and ideas and sticky notes everywhere.
I was still looking for a full time job and decided that maybe I needed to take a couple of classes to gain some more skills. I had seen job postings for proofreaders and for SEO and marketing so I decided that I was going to take a couple of classes online. I took a proofreading class and a marketing class. I enjoyed being "in school" again and I passed both classes with no problem. The problem came when I was looking for a job and saw that the requirements for both types of jobs were experience. It is a catch-22, you can't get a job without experience and you can't get experience without a job. I needed to keep looking and hope that I can find something that is within the scope of my experience. It was only April and so much had happened so fast for me, but I was coping with it and adapting to my new schedule. I wondered what the rest of the year had in store for me..........
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