It's funny because just today I was talking to a friend of mine and
said, “Everyone always talks about how “Nothing is perfect.” And in
saying that, we gloss over the real hard truth of the matter, “Some
things are going to suck, even if your “perfect” job/life/career.”

We gotta realize that being “happy” doesn't mean 100% happy, because
that's not so achievable in this world where we're supposed to learn
things.

For me, the “holding pattern” was being so afraid of putting my stuff out there for the world to see. Suffice it to say I have major self-esteem issues. I opened my Etsy shop in February (as a seller and not a buyer first!) and it took me almost 3 whole months to work up enough gumption in order to put my items up in my shop. The first official opening day I felt completely nauseous and continued to have stomach problems for a few days afterwards. Now I am in the same holding pattern regarding my embroidered pillows that I want to put up in my shop. *sigh*

I can't remember how the generations are clumped together age-wise but I'm 34. My parents didn't have much money while I was small but they made sure that I didn't feel it. I guess I did grow up spoiled but somewhere along the line I did learn that a job is a job is a job and that no job is below you if you have a family to take care of. Well, except hooking, that is. But I do see others my age (and even older!) bitching about not having enough money to live the lifestyle they think they deserve or about not being able to find a job comparable to their previous one.

Here's my poorly neglected little blog to give you an idea of where I'm at and how wordy I can get. ;)
http://abbyandgrr.blogspot.com/

Some of us also are spoiled and want to be happy in their job which makes it hard to do whatever you gotta do to get by, which is also sometimes necessary in order to save up to get where you really want to be.

I read someone once that our gen is screwed b/c we were told we could
do anything and grew up in a boom economy. Thus, we never realized
that sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get where you wanna be.

Yes, muse away on your blog! I'd love to read it!

Or.. we don't have that kind of knowledge to know how much money we'll need. Being jobless has it's ups and downs. On the one hand you have the freedom to do things you might not otherwise have time to do (in between job searching of course), but on the other you don't have the income to feel totally secure just running off and chasing a dream.

I think I might muse more on this on my own blog…

*Shudder* That’s the exact opposite of what I want. Eep! When you word it like that, I really owe it to myself to get to it.

I wrote that post so mega-frustrated! Writing about something you love and have loved for so long is even more frustrating when you start hating it… as it's what you adore and are inspired by.

Funny thing, though, after writing this in February, I took a step back from things and reframed it all and have now channeled it in a new direction, even though at first it seems like I'm writing about the “same old” thing, crafts. I just needed to refocus my own work as and, as you said, “jump into a totally unrelated field,” even though, it's only slightly different?

And yes, I will crack the whip of optimism for you when your mornings aren't going so right. :)

Easy for me to be the philospher when I'm having a strong, confident morning — I will need you to feed this stuff back to me soon enough, I'm sure.

Donna

Donna