Life update! For the first time in my working career, I am unemployed. After eight years at my company, I was let go due to downsizing. I would like to say it comes as a complete shock, but given the economic climate—especially in my industry—I saw the writing on the wall.
Does it fully prepare you? Absolutely not. Losing a job is a grieving process in its own way. I’ve experienced all the stages of grief and have circled back to the beginning quite a few times since I found out.
There’s no denying that being let go often brings a sense of rejection and being discarded. I’ll admit that the stage of grief I keep revisiting is anger—anger because it happened to me. Anger because I had planned to leave many times but stayed, so it wasn’t on my terms.
In the end, I reached acceptance because I believe it’s for the best. I had been at the same company for nearly a decade. Even though I had thought about leaving, something always made me stay. I needed that push out of the nest.
I’ve always been a good worker, chugging along and never asking myself if this is really what I want to do. I’m taking this hiatus from employment to explore that question.
What comes next? Will I return to a similar role in a full-time capacity? Or will I finally start one of the many businesses I’ve been contemplating for years? Only time will tell. There’s something about the unknown that is scary yet exciting to me.
The one thing I do know for sure is that there will be more content creation and blog posts. So, stay tuned.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with me!
Alexa Alfonso 