Day 383: Optimism

I feel good about the future.

Things are going to work out. It seems inevitable. And one advantage to being beyond a year without work is that if the wait is 13 months or 16 months or whatever, I've already gotten through most of it. So every day is one day closer to the end of this.

It's kind of like the old movie cliche about someone marking days off the calendar. But now it's completely relatable... tomorrow is exciting, because tomorrow is nearer to the good stuff.

I may have told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again.

I moved back to Gawd's Country in late 2005 with the ultimate goal of getting back into school and finishing the last 26 hours I needed to get my long-neglected degree.

As part of the process to return to school, in the summer of 2006 I had to petition the Powers That Be at Beloved State U. to get back in. For several days, I did not know if they were going to let me back in. If they were, it was going to be scramble time... I would be notified, and then I would have literally about 48 hours to enroll and take at least one course. It was like awaiting a military mission: When they say "Go" you go right then.

At precisely the same time, I had an unanticipated job prospect arise in Colorado. This prospect went from nonexistent to fairly possible in a very short period. As it turned out, there were a matter of days where the result was going to be either return to school, or pack up and leave. Even more daunting: what if both prospects panned out, and the decision wasn't made for me?

I wondered what I would decide: fulfill a lifelong dream of completing school? Or take a job in a great location and substantially increase my income? It was going to be difficult.

Beloved State U. accepted me. Prospect did not. Decision made. I'm grateful, because going back to school was a great experience and very satisfying. Knowing what I know now, it absolutely would have been the right thing to do no matter how enticing another alternative might have been. My future is much better because of how that worked out.

So sometimes, you have to just roll with it, and trust that things happen for a reason.

Things don't happen in a void... you can't just passively hope for the best, you must take action... ANY action... to set things in motion. I pursued both of those prospects in 2006, and only one of them came through, but it was the best one. And it put me in a position to have options.

I continue to believe that my effort toward getting back in the game will yield results. And I also think it's quite possible that soon I will have to choose between multiple options that hit me at the same time. That's going to be a nice problem to have. But I also think that I've gained enough experience and wisdom to carefully weigh those options and make the best choice.

That's damned exciting. And it could happen tomorrow.