My current reality

The unemployment office is a degrading, depressing place.  You see people from all walks of life.  The person waiting next to you could be a laid off city worker making 20K , an executive  who made 100K, or me a nurse who was firmly in the middle.  We’re all in the same place, at the same time, wanting the same things:

A job, and some help until we get one.

As a nurse, I never, EVER thought that I would be here, in this place, at this time.  I’ve always had it in my mind that stuff like this doesn’t happen to people like me.  I went to school for 5 years, graduated with relatively good grades with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from a good school.  I majored in a field where “the possibilities were endless.”  I chose a field where it seemed I would always have a job.  It was supposed to be “recession proof.”

But here I am: pregnant, unemployed and a statistic.  Yes, I am a part of that 10.2% unemployement rate in Georgia, and the  9.5% unemployment rate in the country.  It was my lot in life to be the last hired, first fired in my 7th month of pregnancy.  To be a victim of “reorganization.”

And I find it ironic that because I am pregnant, I can’t get another job. 

The one thing that I have prayed for, wished for, cried for, rejoiced in, is keeping me unemployed.  Because who will hire the obviously pregnant woman who will deliver  sometime in the next 5 1/2 weeks,and then have to take 6 more weeks off to recuperate?

WHO?

I’ve searched, I’ve asked, and I can’t find them.  I can’t even find someone who will interview me now, and let me start in January.  Who knew a job search would be so hard? Who knew that last weeks of my pregnancy would be so stressful? Who knew I would be reduced to begging for a unemployement check from the government that will barely help cover my regular bills, let alone the new ones that will surface once a baby arrives?

As uncomfortable as I am most days, I would give anything to still have the option to work.  I would give anything not to have to worry about how my bills will get paid, how I will pay for this baby, and how will I support him when he is born.

But this is my reality at this time.

And this reality sucks.