HOW I FOUND HAPPINESS WRITING FOR THE 405 CLUB.

It’s been a pleasure contributing articles and blog entries for members and readers of The 405 Club and one which I anticipate will continue. It was always my dream to write and have people read my thoughts, learn, react, and be inspired, entertained, and so forth. I love intellectual pursuits and reaching out in a positive way and can’t get enough of them. These articles fulfill a big part of that need.

But no one really knows what else hangs on it for me.

Although I have published personal essays and slices-of-life stories in a wide variety of publications and been paid for them and they have weighted down a huge portfolio or two, writing for 405 has come at the ‘write’ time in my life. Having lost one adult son four years ago, it has been a welcoming chance to reconnect with living and doing what I love best after feeling like a gutted torso tossed to the side of a road from grieving him and a powerful healing forum for me to give of myself to hundreds of readers. I feel alive and in the swing of living and the forefront of where help is needed. As a career counselor, writing for 405 combines my writing ability and my knowledge of helping people back up on their feet…doing what comes naturally…a double bonus.

My other son ‘christened’ my writing career when he was born. Waiting for me in the mail, on the day I took him home from the hospital, was a contract from Baby Talk, a national magazine, dated the day he was born. The topic…of course, babies. This same son, who experienced a bout of unemployment but quickly became reemployed, invited me to the first 405 event at Galway Pub last March before his new job miracle. The club graciously embraced me. It meant so much to me and I am grateful to him as well.

I enjoy being aligned to a mission for a good cause and feel vitally alive meeting a promised weekly deadline. How blessed I’ve been with my very own blog. You see, I’m a “hard worker” too. As a writer, I always wished I could find a regular, ongoing weekly forum and here at the 405, I’ve found it. It feels like home.

It humbly reminds me that all life losses cause emptiness, frustration, angst, worry and sorrow—in a word—pain—for everyone. Losing a child, I feel I’ve suffered the ultimate loss. I must confess that sometimes in my line of work, I struggle with the empathy necessary to counsel well, and am overwhelmed with the psychic blast from the throngs of people that amass and mill around, waiting anxiously to be helped by too few counselors in the government-operated career center daily, in which I work. This may sound like a strange comment from a career counselor who is an optimistic, a fighter, advocate and resourceful and successful. I’m also stressed out, depleted and numbed lately and have to continue to regroup and bounce back. I always come back. I love the heart of what I do. And at least I have a job.

This little aside with tidbits of bright advice that flies in and out of my head and the informative topics with which I choose to compose some meaningful blurb each week, keep me balanced in a sea of madness all around me, and gives me a chance to relate to many more people I would not be able to reach, comfort and help. Online here, I am freed from the audit-paranoid reams of tedious, inefficient and redundant, insulting records, forms and screens that threaten to sap the life from me. I literally fight with myself to remain cheerful—and professional. And keep up my energy to still be effective!

Here at 405, I am free to just be…with no strings attached. It’s a great joy.

My agency declared my creative outside world pursuits in the area of writing about job search, to be a conflict of interest, as I was told. OK, so I declared myself a job goddess and went about the business of being who I am. I respect the policies of the powers that be, and wish not to antagonize or draw negativity to myself, but I will still go on writing, contributing ideas and—sure as hell—refuse to give it all up. I would fight for my right to keep doing so, if I had to. I just don’t say my name.

It’s more important that I impart ideas and communicate valuable information. That is my gift.

We hear all the time about paying it forward, volunteering and giving of oneself. The rewards and joys of writing for The 405 Club are limitless. You’d be surprised. And talk to me about overcoming adversity. Finding work? It’s a bitch. I love to look for everyone else and uncover treasure they might not have known about and alleviate some of their pain. To me, after what I’ve been through, it’s a piece of cake. 

-By The Job Goddess Who Won’t Rest Till Everyone Is Put To Work!

Read about more helpful resources from The Job Goddess here.

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