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I am a freelance art director in the clothing industry here in Portland. The apparel company I worked for for 2 years filed for banruptcy last May, and in the same week of losing my job, the lease came up on my apartment. In less than a week I sold as many possessions as I was willing to part with, and crammed everything else into the attic of my father's house in SW Portland. I then took off, left the country until the Fall, traveling to India among other places. I waffled between feeling selfish and indulgent, and then relieved for being out of the US, to gain a greater perspective of what it means to live in the world. Maybe there really is more to life than buying and selling wares? Yup, turns out there is. 

The most profound experience I've had with this recession is the way unemployment has brought me closer to my core family. I'm 31, single, female, and when back in Portland my father, his wife, and their 9 year old son folded me into their family (and their basement) without hesitation. We've grown much closer than we ever would have had I been living on my own.

I'm back on my own now and in a great place, overwhelmed with freelance work, and while this is all I could hope for, I find myself missing my family, and missing India. Unemployment deepened my connection with both of these things. Many of my friends have since been laid off, and I try to assure them that new, unexpected opportunities arise from this kind of loss, but that's hard to hear in the beginning.

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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